There has been a plethora of recent exhibitions across the UK by artists working with text as well as image, both from the older generation of 70s feminist artists, such as Mary Kelly (at the Whitworth, Manchester) and Susan Hiller (Tate Britain), through concrete poet, artist, and writer Ian Hamilton Finlay (Victoria Miro), to the contemporary Bob & Roberta Smith (Work, Acton Street) and Annemarie Wright (Woolff Gallery, Charlotte Street).

Go to any art fair, degree show, or biennale, and you'll be greeted by as many words as you will pictures. Furthermore, we are surrounded by the ever expanding presence of Street Art, and then, of course, there is the confessional text, in neon lights, appliquéd blankets, back-to-front monoprints, and handwritten letters and poems, as showcased in magnificent form in the current Tracey Emin retrospective at the Hayward.

But when did text start to infiltrate the previously aesthetically oriented realm of the visual arts? In her article Lorem Ipsum: The Role of Text in Art, Karen Gardner takes a look back over the previous century and provides an overview of some of the keystones in this development.

Ed Winters takes a critical look at the use of text in Conceptual Art, an anti-Greenbergian, anti-aesthetic means of expression. Bringing this up-to-date, he pillories Bob and Roberta Smith for being merely 'decoratively conceptual'.

Kate Kotcheff looks at the work of early Street Artist, Jenny Holzer, and considers her sculptural interaction with architecture.

Cedar Lewisohn, in interview with Anna McNay, discusses the histories of Street Art and Graffiti, attempting to draw a distinction between the two, and looking at their political aspects.

Rodolph de Salis takes a trip to Walsall to sample the delights of some local graffiti, and to look, contrastingly, at the absence of text where it is to be expected, in the newly commissioned works by Leo Fitzmaurice.

And, of course, there is a review of the Tracey Emin show, focusing on her use of text, by Alexandra Kokoli.

Our profiled artist this month is Ellen Bell – seemingly quite the opposite of Tracey Emin, but nonetheless not shy of the odd 'dirty word'.

Enjoy reading, and don't hesitate to verbalise your own responses and opinions by posting comments and initiating discussion!