Jenny Holzer

For 7 World Trade Center

7 WTC Lobby Public
Jenny Holzer, For 7 World Trade Center, 2006
Jenny Holzer, For 7 World Trade Center, 2006

Neo-conceptual artist Jenny Holzer created an installation for the lobby’s 65- foot-wide, 14-foot-high fortified-glass security shield. Her concept was a continuous selection of New York-centric poetry and prose scrolling along a translucent glass screen attached to the shield. “I was nervous at first, because Jenny’s work is often controversial and sometimes quite negative,” recalled Larry Silverstein. “I thought it was important to be positive and uplifting in this place that had seen so much grief.” So, Larry asked his wife, Klara, to collaborate with Holzer. They spent more than a year compiling the selection, which runs on a 36-hour loop and includes works by Walt Whitman, Allen Ginsberg, Langston Hughes, Elizabeth Bishop and others, as well as a recent addition of works by New York City public school students.

Jenny Holzer, For 7 World Trade Center, 2006