Turning the whole thing around: text art today

This chapter brings the issues attached to text art up to date, questioning its original principles and extending them in the process. It introduces the concept of a 'third generation' of text artists whose work treats language neither as a novel ontology of art nor as image, but as the grammar, or logic, of all meaningful activity and exchange. Text, for this generation, is present in the written or unwritten 'scripts' that individuals follow when they act out rituals, or is necessary in the selection and ordering of material from a catalogue. Beech’s essay led to an invitation from The Pratt Institute, New York, to curate an exhibition on text "art, entitled ‘We Are Grammar’ (25 February –– 7 May 2011). This was a large-scale exhibition of 2D, sculptural, installation, and video works by over 40 contemporary artists.