Jenny Holzer / Private Property Created Crime / 1984
Published by Kunsthalle Basel / Le Nouveau Musée, Basel / Villeurbanne
Format: softcover artist book / exhibition catalogue
Size: approx. 21.5 × 21.5 cm
Pages: 63 pages
Language: English
Illustrations: colour and black-and-white throughout
Condition: light rubbing and wear to covers; very good indeed
Shipping: carefully packed; available within the UK and internationally
A photo-illustrated catalogue-cum-artist's book surveying several early bodies of street work and installations by Jenny Holzer. Published in 1984 to accompany exhibitions at Kunsthalle Basel and Le Nouveau Musée, the book documents the period in which Holzer's language circulated through posters, plaques, stickers, T-shirts, and electronic signs — establishing text as a public medium rather than a private literary form.
The photographs are arranged in discrete sequences: Truisms (1977–1983), Essays (1979–1983), Living (1981–1983), and Survival (1983–1984). A brief introduction by Jean-Christophe Ammann appears at the front, with a biography and bibliography at the rear.
What distinguishes this publication is its directness. Rather than functioning only as documentation, the book redistributes Holzer's work in portable form. Street posters, Times Square signage, inscriptions, and public declarations are reorganised here as a sequence of appearances. The result sits somewhere between exhibition record, artist's book, and distribution device.
A strong early Holzer title, and an especially clear document of the years in which her texts moved through the street, the billboard, and the page. This copy presents well, with light external wear consistent with age.
