Words have power. That is the message at the heart of Jenny Holzer’s (b. 1950) practice. Holzer is recognised as one of the most influential artists of our times, known for memorable works such as the landmark Light Line (1989) at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. The site-specific installation followed the six ramps of Frank Lloyd Wright’s rotunda to the building’s apex, filling the space with scrolling texts from major series including Truisms and Inflammatory Essays. Some of her most famous phrases include “abuse of power comes as no surprise” and “protect me from what I want”, and they have appeared on billboards and electronic LED signs around the world. Now, Holzer takes over another iconic cultural building – the Musée d’Orsay, located along the river Seine in Paris.
J’ai vu is Holzer’s latest exhibition, and it kicked off last week with a series of light projections on the museum’s façade. Written excerpts, selected by Holzer from a range of 19th and 20th century sources, transformed the building’s exterior. These included letters found in the institution’s archive and contemporaneous literary and political commentary from the likes of Émile Zola, Gustave Flaubert, Paul Cezanne and Vincent van Gogh. Audiences watched as “I am seeking the impossible” and “I am afraid yet I still hold out some hope” were beamed directly onto the 19th century architecture, the statements reflected in the glimmering water below. There was a striking contrast between Holzer’s use of the geometric, sans-serif typeface Futura and the historic, Beaux-Arts aesthetic of the Musée d’Orsay.
The building is a railway-station-turned-art-gallery, and this is something Holzer makes sure to acknowledge. Inside, a stock ticker-esque, site-specific LED sign bearing colourful streams of text extends across four galleries – including those dedicated to history painting, naturalism and symbolism, as well as the famous Courbet room. Elsewhere, Holzer has curated a series of paintings that focus on the theme of war, displayed alongside a selection of her own gold, platinum and palladium-leafed works concerning recent international conflicts. Audiences will also discover metallic paintings based on declassified government documents, whole sections of which have been obscured, as well as new stoneworks inspired by the Orsay’s pedestals, engraved with words from the period covered by the collection (1848-1914).
With more than 750 unique texts drawn from 424 sources and 73 authors, J’ai vu may well be Holzer’s largest selection of extracts for an exhibition to date. Although the writings address specific events and figures, from the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871) and the Paris Commune to Baron Haussmann, their themes remain relevant today. Questions of living conditions in Paris, workers’ strikes, activism, colonialism and the military all find echoes in the present. Whether projected onto the museum’s façade, carved into marble and granite or cast through space as streams of light, Holzer’s work brings together a multitude of voices to portray a period of profound social and political change. Artists, critics, journalists and revolutionaries offer differing, sometimes contradictory, perspectives on their time. Together, these accounts reveal how the concerns and conflicts of the past continue to shape the present.
J’ai vu is at Musée d’Orsay, Paris, until 21 February.
Words: Eleanor Sutherland
Image Credits:
1. Jenny Holzer (1950) Claude Monet, letter to Théodore Duret, February 2, 1884 © 2026 Jenny Holzer, member Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP 2026, Paris
2. Jenny Holzer écrit, 2026 Panneau LED avec diodes bleues, vertes et rouges /LED sign with blue, green, and red diodes © 2026 Jenny Holzer, member Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris Photo © Musée d’Orsay – Laëtitia Striffling-Marcu.
3. Jenny Holzer, Lettre de Vincent van Gogh à Emile Bernard, 2 novembre 1888 © 2026 Jenny Holzer, member Artists Rights Society (ARS), New-York (ADAGP), Paris
