Does the saying “A picture tells a thousand words” apply to text art?

Maybe not.

A picture normally doesn’t tell you directly what it’s about, so lots of words can be written on the subject of what it may be about. Many artists may state that they don’t actually know what their art is about, but there are many critics who will write at great length about the art’s meaning as they see it.

Text art seems to bypass this by literally making a statement. So a five word piece of text art can be said to literally tell five words rather than a thousand.

If only it was that simple.