War Paintings

Jenny Holzer (born 1950) became known in the 1980s with her billboards, projections and LED installations that often used text to deliver social critique. Jenny Holzer: War Paintings is a significant departure from the works for which she is known. It draws from declassified and US government documents concerning the War on Terror and military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. Holzer transforms these redacted documents–memoranda, planning maps, diplomatic communiqués, interrogation records, autopsy reports and the handwritten cris de coeur of detainees themselves–into ravishing silkscreened and handpainted oil-on-linen paintings several times their original size. Holzer embarked on the war paintings in an effort to end the normalization of torture. This volume compiles over 200 images–full-bleed reproductions and installation views–of some of the most important political art of our time.