Nancy Dwyer, Doubt, 1998, Gobo template and light

Word Perfect is an exhibition which can be taken for its words alone, as there are no images in the normal sense of the word. Some of the artists' work employs an analytical approach to language, investigating vernacular idioms, preexisting signifying systems, and familiar decorative schemata. These word systems are manipulated through patterning, printing, stenciling, chance procedures, and repetition. Other works in this show aggressively elude contextualization, because they are isolated linguistic formulations. And finally, some work simply refuses to deliver a message, making meaning dependent on the spectator's psychological and cultural associations. Overall, these text works provide fewer supports on which to base one's interpretation, opening up alternative ways to assess meaning.