List of jenny holzer truisms

Jenny Holzer’s Truisms (1977–1979) are some of her best-known works. The nearly 300 aphorisms and slogans utilize a series of modern clichés or commonly held truths.^[1]

Conception and execution

Holzer started investigating the use of words and language as an art medium in itself while she was studying literature and philosophy in New York City in 1977.

She began simplifying big ideas from her readings into concise statements and phrases and putting up signs around Manhattan. As opposed to contemporaries like Barbara Kruger, Louise Lawler, or Richard Prince, Holzer considered the text the image in itself, whereas they combined text with imagery.^[2] She appreciated the immediacy and the reaching of wide-scale audiences that signage provided.^[3] Holzer placed the finished products in telephone booths or on the walls of buildings, eventually shifting to bigger projects, like her installations in Times Square.^[4