Word art or text art[1] is a form of art that includes text, forming words or phrases, as its main component; it is a combination of language and visual imagery.[2]
There are two main types of word art:[2]
The style has been used since the 1950s by artists classified as postmodern, partly as a reaction to abstract art of the time. Word art has been used in painting, sculpture, lithography, screen-printing and projection mapping, and applied to T-shirts and other practical items.[2] Artists often use words from sources such as advertising, political slogans and graphic design, and use them for various effects from serious to comical.[3]
Other artists whose work is known for using text include Jasper Johns, Robert Indiana, Shepard Fairey,[2] Mel Bochner, Kay Rosen, Lawrence Weiner, Ed Ruscha and the collective Guerrilla Girls, whose work conveys political messages in the tradition of protest art.[4] Australian artists include Abdul Abdullah, Kate Just, Anastasia Klose, Sue Kneebone,[3] and Vernon Ah Kee.[5]
Hong Kong artist Tsang Kin-Wah's work, which includes video installations, incorporates word art to express emotions and ideas, for example in Untitled-Hong Kong (2003-2004), which mixes bad language with pretty floral patterns based on William Morris designs.[6]
A 2018 exhibition held simultaneously at Subliminal Projects (which was co-founded by Fairey) in Los Angeles and Faction Art Projects in New York featured the word art of Holzer, Ruscha, Guerrilla Girls and Betty Tompkins as well as younger artists like Ramsey Dau and Scott Albrecht.[1]
Also in 2018, an exhibition called Word in the Hugo Mitchell Gallery in Adelaide, South Australia, featured the work of Just, Abdullah, Klose, Kneebone, Alice Lang, Richard Lewer, Sera Waters, and many others.[3]