Jenny Holzer was born in Ohio and studied painting at Duke University and the University of Chicago before earning her MFA from Rhode Island School of Design in 1975. She is known for her large-scale public displays of text phrases on billboards and projections in various cities. Her "Truisms" pieces from the 1970s involved printing phrases on paper and wheat-pasting them around New York City to start conversations among pedestrians about literature, philosophy, and contemporary society. Holzer pioneered the use of electronic signs to display her text-based work and is renowned for challenging viewers with provocative statements about human experiences.

1. Artist Presentation
Jenny Holzer

3.  Jenny Holzer was born in Gallipolis, Ohio.
 She studied at Duke University in North
Carolina where she originally wanted to pursue
abstract painting.
 She then went onto traditional painting,
printmaking and drawing at the University of
Chicago.
 Holzer took summer courses at The Rhode
Island School of Design where she entered into
their MFA program in 1975.

4.  In 1974, she moved to Manhattan and
participated in the Whitney Museum's
independent study program, which expanded
her art and began her first exploration with
language as art.
 Holzer belongs to a feminist generation of
artists that emerged in the 1980s.

6.  She is mostly known for her large scale public
displays. Such as billboards, signs, and
illuminated projections.

11.  The Whitney program included an extensive
reading list incorporating Western and Eastern
literature and philosophy. Holzer felt the
writings could be simplified to phrases
everyone could understand. She called these
summaries her "Truisms"
 These, appeared as anonymous sheets that
she printed black script onto and wheat-pasted
the sheets of paper onto buildings, walls and
fences around the city.

13.  Her Truisms allowed pedestrians to scribble
messages on the posters and make verbal
comments. Holzer would stand and listen to the
conversations that her art had started.
 The interactions with the art was what Holzer
was really trying to achieve with these pieces.

15.  The main purpose of her work was displaying
ideas in a public space.
 She moved on from street posters to LED
signs.

19.  In 1982, for the first time Holzer installed a
large electronic sign on the Spectacolor board
in Times Square. This piece was sponsored by
the Public Art Fund program. This was part of
her Survival series which speaks to the great
pain, delight, and ridiculousness of living in
contemporary society

27.  The birth of her first child inspired her series
"Laments," one of her most personal and
honest collections. The "Laments" address
motherhood, violation, pain, torture, and death.

30.  Holzer withdrew from the art world and then
returned in 1993. In October of 1993 she
partook in a virtual reality exhibit at the famed
Guggenheim Museum.