For those who appreciate both meaningful words and modern art, Phaidon's Vitamin Txt (the first thematic entry in its long-running Vitamin series) is a vivid, fascinating feast of visual art that employs text as a key element. Color photos of paintings, sculpture, mixed media, and other forms of art appear alongside thoughtful essays by art critics, art historians, professors, and curators. Each of the book's more than 100 artists is featured in a spread highlighting several key works alongside an essay exploring their work through a cultural, political, or artistic lens. Some pieces make pointed statements or ask bold questions, like Patrick Martinez's Struggle and Progress or Judy Chicago's What if Women Ruled the World? Other pieces blur the text, scramble it, or obfuscate it altogether. Advertising, religion, political propaganda, portraits, and other traditional forms of art and media become something different when text is applied with wit or provocation. Diverse in form and cultural background, the artists in Vitamin Txt and their work provide a thought-provoking array of words in art--and as art. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams