The Art of Words

You're sensing a theme here now, aren't you? Ha.

The practice of making art out of words has been around almost as long as we have. Archeologists have found graffiti at Pompei and Herculaneum, and some 5,000-year-old specimens on the walls of the Tarxien Temples in Malta.

Mapelba has a collection on flickr here of art made from words from her novel, as well as a blog called Words are Art.

Wordmeister Edward Ruscha liked to paint words as art. My favorite from his work is his painting I Think I'll . . . ; that's exactly how indecisiveness makes me feel.

Jenny Holzer is pretty well-known for her work, which is almost always made of words. I love how she transforms them into emotional environments. I also like Ruark Lewis's Euphemisms for the Intimate Enemy, a massive installation which combines words and five hundred and fifty 55-gallon oil drums.

The Egyptians made words into art with their beautiful and complicated hieroglyphs; you can translate your own name (up to 11 letters) into this ancient art over at the Egyptian Name Translator.

Exactly what it feels like to finish a story and send it off: When Words Become Precious.

And I thought I was a wordy journaler: Days of Words.

Get the words before you go inside: the main doors to the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain are made of words.

Wearing your wordwork: Words, it is all about the words!

Make your words into a manifestypo of art online with the Typo Generator.