What can words communicate visually? Where does reading blur with viewing, changing the ways in which we do both? This new exhibition at the Harry Ransom Center showcases works by artists from the mid-twentieth century to today who have employed text in advancement of their visual arguments.

Featuring collaborations between fine presses and artists, examples of typographic and concrete poetry, and experimentations in pop and surrealism, the exhibition puts prints by Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, and Ed Ruscha in conversation with works by Charles Henri Ford, Kristin Calhoun, David McGee, and others. Drawing on recently acquired prints as well as from existing materials in the Ransom Center's permanent collection, Art in Words includes works for which text and image operate in co-equal dialog, and critically considers the possibilities of letters and words to act as visual artistic medium.