Jenny Holzer might be variously labeled as artist, social commentator or even street artist, but, however you view her, she is arguably one of the most important contemporary conceptual and text-based artists. She uses words and phrases like an advertising executive to produce her minimalist works which, projected onto buildings or seen in the form of electronic news tickers streaming past the viewer, carry messages that are either political or of deep humane concern to the artist herself.

When she first came to prominence in the late 1970s, Holzer was counted as part of the feminist movement, and her texts were not only outspoken but angry. The early work Truisms (1977), printed initially on posters pasted around New York, and later reproduced in LED, includes such pithy statements as IDEALS ARE REPLACED BY CONVENTIONAL GOALS AT A CERTAIN AGE, REDISTRIBUTING WEALTH IS IMPERATIVE, ABUSE OF POWER COMES AS NO SURPRISE and AN ELITE IS INEVITABLE. These might, at first, be understood as playful but provocative, but, upon closer study, they reveal a crucial and basic criticism of our Western democratic life and social systems. In a sense, for Holzer, everything is politicised.

Whilst the public context of these messages certainly gives them extra clout, through exposure to the masses, where does the true impact on the viewer stem from? Some might say it comes from the texts' content and the resonance created by their meaning: they are read as truisms of postmodern culture. But I would suggest it is more than this alone.

In Berlin earlier this year, I came upon one of Holzer's works at the Neue Nationalgalerie. The building was designed by Mies van der Rohe and opened in 1968. It is one huge glass atrium, a modern and severe design, but nevertheless a metaphysical experience in itself. To then watch Holzer's digitally streamed texts moving across the ceiling was quite something else. This work, Installation for the Neue Nationalgalerie, was originally installed here ten years ago, consisting of 13 LED strips, each 49 metres long, scrolling sentences with amber-coloured letters. Mounted on tracks on the ceiling, they run east to west at various speeds, appearing integral to the building. There is a point at which they run off into the infinite, especially at night when the whole building is lit up by all kinds of passing illumination from nearby roads and the neighbouring Potsdamer Platz. Holzer had become so fascinated upon the discovery of this building when she was first wandering around the city, that she stayed in a hotel opposite so as to observe it at different times of day.

So it's true to say that Holzer loves architecture, but what is the relationship between her texts and the buildings on to which they are projected or within which they are installed? The buildings evidently become a vehicle for the texts, but, in the case of the Neue National Galerie, where they were viewed from the interior, I would suggest it is something subtler than usual. This particular building, being more than enough of a Modernist art piece in itself, demanded careful consideration on the part of the artist when deciding how to correctly balance the placing of the lettering with its structure. One thing is certain – it's sheer audacity to think that anyone could improve on the experience of a Mies van der Rohe design, but Holzer does manage to attain a level of respect here, even if the task might at first seem implausible and even arrogant.

Another example of Holzer's interaction with Modernist architecture was THINKING BIG, held at the Guggenheim, New York, in 2008, where the chosen texts were projected on to the exterior as well as seen running around the edge of the central spiral. When viewed from the interior's round summit, the circling texts created a new aspect to the building, a moving part which accentuated its renowned design.

Having started out using only her own words, Holzer now regularly appropriates other writers' work, particularly that of Palestinian and Eastern European poets. The world's political arena has changed and so, to use the message of others, perhaps in less fortunate circumstances, is perhaps a wiser approach, the words already being charged with their own significance. In 2004, for example, the stone façade of the Hotel Pennsylvania, in New York's Times Square, took on a new character when Holzer projected the following words on to it:

TO ACQUIRE A POLITICAL MEANING

YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE TO BE HUMAN

RAW MATERIAL WILL DO

OR PROTEIN FEED

OR CRUDE OIL

The words were taken from a translation of the poem Children of Our Era, written in 1986 by Wislawa Szymborska, a Polish poet who has lived through both the First World War and the era of Stalinist rule. By projecting them on to a structure so symbolic of comfort in the capital of Western culture, just one year after the beginning of the Iraq War, Holzer gave the words – and building – new resonance.

Another striking aspect of Holzer's works, where sentences are projected on to the exteriors of buildings, something best experienced at night, is that the words and lettering take on a new life of their own. The building's overall identity becomes less prominent, we might only see certain aspects of the design: the contours, lines, corners and edges of the façade. The overall meaning of the sentences also becomes less easy to grasp, as the lettering sizes can reach huge proportions once projected. The lettering becomes a light sculpture in itself – pure text.

So, within the politicised messages and the grandiose architectural settings, where does the true impact of this art locate itself? It must be from the culmination of projection and architecture: the interaction between the two, and the recontextualising of others' words in stark juxtaposition to their setting. This surely is the biggest coup. It could, perhaps, be interpreted as a kind of curating, as Holzer brings together two media, text and architecture, which are both art forms in their own right. There is a greater responsibility when dealing not only with other people's texts, but also with big name buildings and the organisations that go with that. Some architecture fans would say it's sacrilege to impose any counter image on to some of the greatest building designs of the modern age, but it's precisely for this reason that Holzer uses them, to draw public attention and, accordingly, to pack a far more proverbial and powerful punch.

Kate Kotcheff

Kate Kotcheff studied architecture at the Architectural Association and subsequently worked as a producer in music video, documentary and film. The main focus of her practice is photography, plus, more recently, drawing. Kate is currently completing a Fine Art BA at Sir John Cass / London Met.

http://www.artselector.com/users/kate-kotcheff

Images: 1. Jenny Holzer, THINKING BIG, For the Guggenheim, 2008. 2. Jenny Holzer, Installation for the Neue Nationalgalerie, 2011. Interior towards Potsdamer Platz, Attilio Maranzano. LED strips. 3. Jenny Holzer, Midtown Manhattan, 2004. Projection on to the façade of Hotel Pennsylvania, New York. Text from a poem by Wislawa Szymborska