Sans commune mesure: Text and Image in Contemporary Art

The exhibition 'Sans commune mesure' examines the relationship between text and image in art from the 1990s to the 2000s, taking place simultaneously at three venues: Centre national de la photographie in Paris (11 September – 18 November 2002, curated by Régis Durand), Le Fresnoy – Studio national in Tourcoing (21 September – 1 December 2002, curated by Alain Fleischer and Pascale Pronnier), and Musée d'art moderne Lille métropole in Villeneuve d'Ascq (21 September 2002 – 19 January 2003, curated by Joëlle Pijaudier-Cabot and Sabine Faupin). The accompanying essay by Michel Gauthier traces two historical trajectories that led to the 'text as painting' phenomenon: conceptual art's reduction of the world to language (exemplified by Joseph Kosuth's 'One and Three Chairs', Art & Language's 'Abstract Art', and Lawrence Weiner's propositions) and pop art's transformation of language into icon (notably Edward Ruscha's word paintings). Gauthier argues that despite conceptual art's initial dominance, the pop art paradigm ultimately prevailed, turning text into image. He identifies two strategies to overcome this reification: temporalizing the text through motion (Charles Sandison's projected word animations) and reintroducing the voice as a technical, manipulable element (Pierre Huyghe's 'Dubbing' and Stan Douglas's 'Journey into Fear'). The exhibition features over 80 artists including Art & Language, Gary Hill, Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger, and Lawrence Weiner.