About Jenny Holzer Truisms (1977)
Jenny Holzer's Truisms project stripped art to its barest element: a single declarative sentence, set in all-caps Helvetica, wheat-pasted anonymously across Lower Manhattan in 1977. No signature, no frame, no gallery — just text entering public space without permission.
This design system channels that radical austerity: black void, white type, occasional red accent. Every surface is a potential LED board or handbill. The text is the interface; the interface is the statement.
- Origin
- Lower Manhattan, New York City
- Era
- 1977–1979 Truisms; continuous LED practice through 2024
- Key figures
- Jenny Holzer · Barbara Kruger · Lawrence Weiner · Sherrie Levine
- Movements
- Conceptual / language-based art · Pictures Generation · Feminist-conceptual practice
Jenny Holzer Truisms (1977) design spec
Colors
Background
Surface
Primary
Secondary
Accent
Text
Typography
InterHeadings
JetBrains MonoMono
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