A short excerpt from an interview in a 1991 issue of Blitz magazine with Jenny Holzer:
Targeted by artist and populist propagandist Jenny Holzer in slogans, the capitalist corporations and collectors, the art elite and art-buying banks, respond simply and swiftly: they simply buy the stuff.
Know your enemy is one thing, invest in her is altogether more effective: it not only challenges art’s ability to disturb or subvert, it derides the substance of her work and questions whether Holzer – one of art’s most fêted subversives – has made any genuine impact at all.
“Have I reformed any bankers you mean? It’s a good question. I doubt it. The first hazard of notoriety is that they just think, ‘Oh, maybe I can make some money off this.’ You question if you’re just helping someone make money who probably has a lot of it already…
The work has the most impact anonymously on the street, when they’re not thinking about whether it’s ‘art’ or not. They confront the content. I try to hit the issues which people actually live or die by.”
— (via)