Text-Based Art — Defining Text Art and Its Histories

* * *

Maybe New Answers To Questions Like “What’s Text-Based Art?” And “What’s The History Of Text Art?”

* * *

ART WITH WORDS, PART ONE — Before we get into new definitions and histories, I guess we need a baseline. The truly academic definitions put me to sleep. So here’s a standard one I’ve modified to at least use the words “feelings” and “thoughts” — the head and the heart, not just one or the other:

Text-based art, or art with words, lets artists and viewers interact in language, not just image, object, or sound. Words can be aesthetically pleasing on their own, or they can contribute meaning, or both. Text art can make art accessible; allow for diversity in interpretations; and inspire not just emotions but also views and thoughts. In art with words, artists have even more ways to express themselves, and viewers have even more ways to experience the artist’s work — because text art can inspire both subjective feeling and it can also inspire objective discussion and dialogue — perhaps even across cultures and language. Text-based art doesn’t mean words have to be the primary focus — they just have to be part.

* * *

The rest of the article tests standard definitions with some images — click here or via the main menu.

* * *

Future articles coming on (1) “Interactions Between Text-Language-Words and Images-Pictures-Art” as well as (2) “Relationships between Text-Words and Images-Art” — both sound like a dry academic analysis but let’s see if we can’t make them fun and forward-looking into what text-based art can do.

* * *

[About the author: Adam Daley Wilson is a gallery-represented text-based artist. He has traditional academic degrees — a J.D. from Stanford Law School in California and a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Both include work in comparative studies; the B.A. also includes world history.]

Updated October 2022 — Adam Daley Wilson [pending further revisions]