What is text-based art?

It’s hard to define without being tautological.

Text-based art is art that’s based on text or in which text is a very significant feature.

Let’s concentrate on two dimensional art for now – that’s art on paper or canvas and that can perhaps be put into a frame and hung on the wall. What makes a piece of paper that’s covered in text and that’s framed and hung on the wall a piece of text-based art while a passage of text on a piece of paper that’s in a book isn’t a piece of tax based art (unless of course the book involved is a so-called artist book)? And what about a page book that’s cut out and framed and hung on a wall – is that a piece of text-based art?

By some definitions of the word art, an item becomes art due to the fact that it is created specifically as art, so for instance, handwritten text placed in a frame and mounted on a wall is by definition art while if the same words were printed in a book the text would be there purely to transmit the meanings of the words in a utilitarian way, so it’s not art.

So think of it this way, text in a book is no more text-based art than a photograph of a piece of art hanging on the wall is a work of art. So a photograph of the Mona Lisa is not a work of art, it’s just a recording of a work of art.