There has been much scaremongering about the 'death of the book', and how, as words find new ways and means of transmission, young people might gradually begin to shun writing. In the digital age, text becomes information, and information strives to become free. But what value can text hold in the sphere of visual art? How is such text different from poetry? Can the poetic itself be visual art, or is text in this context consigned to the realms of gimmick and catchphrase? Looking at the work of a broad range of artists including Bruce Nauman, Julien Breton, Jeremy Deller, Takashi Murakami, Tracey Emin, Christian Boltanski and many more, The Word is Art examines each of these questions, contending above all that in the digital and online age, words have become more important than ever. With the advent of texting and social media, many predicted the debasement of language, and some have pointed to evidence of this in our so-called 'post-truth' culture. Artist Michael Petry demonstrates that, on the contrary, words remain critical, powerful and central to art practice. Digital communication has seen the word as text permeate life in ways that the poets and artists of yesterday could never have imagined. Presenting a brief history of word- and book-based art, and examining major areas where the word has dominated artistic practice, this book takes us on a fascinating and richly illustrated global tour of diverse contemporary art forms. With 250 illustrations in colour

A fascinating overview of how contemporary artists incorporate text and language into work that speaks to the most pressing issues of the 21st century. In this new volume celebrated artist and curator Michael Petry, addresses media and marketplace concerns about the state of language and the value of books in the digital age. As words find new modes of transmission in contemporary society, text becomes information, and information strives to become free, Petry asks, what value can text hold in the sphere of visual art? Looking at the work of a broad range of artists including Bruce Nauman, Julien Breton, Jeremy Deller, Takashi Murakami, Tracey Emin, Christian Boltanski, and more, The Word is Art explores this and related questions and demonstrates how words remain critical, powerful, and central to art practice. Presenting major areas where the word has dominated artistic practice, this book takes us on a fascinating and richly illustrated global tour of diverse contemporary art forms.

The artists’ books made in Russia between 1910 and 1915 are like no others. Unique in their fusion of the verbal, visual, and sonic, these books are meant to be read, looked at, and listened to. Painters and poets—including Natalia Goncharova, Velimir Khlebnikov, Mikhail Larionov, Kazimir Malevich, and Vladimir Mayakovsky— collaborated to fabricate hand-lithographed books, for which they invented a new language called zaum (a neologism meaning “beyond the mind”), which was distinctive in its emphasis on “sound as such” and its rejection of definite logical meaning. At the heart of this volume are close analyses of two of the most significant and experimental futurist books: Mirskontsa (Worldbackwards) and Vzorval’ (Explodity). In addition, Nancy Perloff examines the profound differences between the Russian avant-garde and Western art movements, including futurism, and she uncovers a wide-ranging legacy in the midcentury global movement of sound and concrete poetry (the Brazilian Noigandres group, Ian Hamilton Finlay, and Henri Chopin), contemporary Western conceptual art, and the artist’s book. Sound recordings of zaum poems featured in the book are available at www.getty.edu.

CD-ROM contains the digitized images found in the book.

A highly illustrated survey of the use of words (or language) in art. Art, Word and Image asks what it means when a painting is 'invaded' by language - how do the two forms converse and combine, and what messages are intended for the viewer?

Art and Science in Word and Image explores how discovery and innovation have functioned inter-dependently across art, literature and the sciences, focusing on engagements with natural forms and forces, and other fields of knowledge across a spectrum of creative media.