NEW YORK.- Printed Matter presents a new exhibition, "Protect Me From What I Want: the Multiples and Editioned Works of Jenny Holzer." Running from July 18 through September 31, the exhibition features an abundance of works for sale, including postcards, posters, T-shirts, caps, L.E.D. signs and ephemera.

"Protect Me From What I Want: the Multiples and Editioned Works of Jenny Holzer" focuses on Holzer’s inexpensive multiples and editions within the broader context of her long-term engagement with different forms of public art. A consideration of public space, address and audience have been central aspects of Holzer’s work, from anonymous street posters and stickers, to massive, electronic billboards in such public spaces as Times Square, airport baggage claims, and baseball parks.



Holzer’s multiples - T-shirts, caps, postcards, rubberstamps, and other ordinary objects emblazoned with her text pieces - constitute another set of relationships to audience, public space and message. On one hand, they are commodities circulating within the marketplace (often with texts that question and challenge the very precepts of that market and its ideological foundations); on the other hand they circulate via a random diffusion through public, private, pedestrian and other spaces. In presenting "Protect Me From What I Want: the Multiples and Editioned Works of Jenny Holzer," Printed Matter will serve as a hub for these processes of distribution.



One of Holzer’s earliest solo shows (1979) was at Printed Matter’s old space on Lispenard Street, where she displayed her Truisms series in our storefront windows. Holzer’s multiples share a close affinity to Printed Matter’s mission: to facilitate the distribution, understanding and appreciation of artists’ books and related publications by artists. Indeed, artists’ publications, like Holzer’s multiples, construct a circuitous public space as they are bought and sold, given as gifts, browsed and scrutinized, shelved or displayed, and even discarded.



Holzer first used "Protect Me From What I Want" in 1983 as part of her "Survival" series. In a time of accelerated market forces and their resulting international political dramas, this comment, which casts identity and desire in the light of the commodity spectacle, seems more timely than ever.