Installation for the U.S. Courthouse and Federal Building

Jenny Holzer’s use of language as a visual-arts medium has greatly influenced the growth of a new genre of text-based art. To create her work, Holzer draws from social, political, and cultural commentaries, as well as her own writings. She presents these texts in diverse media, such as posters, stone benches, electronic LED signs, and—since 1996—xenon light projections in cities around the world.

Holzer first began to receive public attention in 1977 for her Truisms, a series of posters that she displayed around lower Manhattan. She printed the posters with her alphabetical lists of aphorisms—such as ABUSE OF POWER COMES AS NO SURPRISE or MONEY CREATES TASTE—that are simultaneously serious and satirical. Holzer soon had her Truisms printed on the backs of cash-register receipts, engraved onto marble benches, and even displayed on the giant electronic signboards in Times Square and in sports arenas.

Holzer has said that she uses words as an artistic medium in order to “provoke thinking, emotion, and conversation.” Her artwork for the courthouse in Sacramento presents a selection of statements about the concepts of law, truth, and justice that she has collected from various historical sources. These include traditional legal maxims, as well as the writings of U.S. Supreme Court justices, law professors, activists, and philosophers. The texts were carved into ninety-nine of the courthouse plaza’s paving stones and reflect a variety of themes that Holzer has been exploring throughout her career. The engraved paving stones are oriented in multiple directions, providing visitors traveling anywhere across the plaza an easy opportunity to read a sampling of quotations. The words are intended to elicit both reflection and passion from readers, as the artist chose statements that variously complement and contradict one another. With this language-based artwork, Holzer also mimics the vast network of interlocking texts that constitute legal and judicial discourse.