Jenny Holzer

1950, Gallipolis, Ohio, USA; lives in New York, USA

Lustmord, 1993-1994

ink on skin, cibachrome prints

The Lustmord series represents a turning point in Jenny Holzer’s work, because this was the first time that the artist used the human body as a tool of expression. The title is taken from a German word that means murder plus sexual pleasure. The short written statements on the human skin, which the photographs depict, are written from three different perspectives: that of the Observer, the Perpetrator and the Victim. The work relates to the rape of women in the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Lustmord photographs were originally presented in the Süddeutsche Zeitung and the ink used for the cover of this paper contained women’s blood.