Roni Horn: Water Water On the Wall, You’re the Fairest of Them All

A comprehensive look at the celebrated work of contemporary artist Horn, whose innovative exploration of water as a medium and metaphor has established her as a vital voice in the discourse on identity, perception, and the environment.

This book is a captivating exploration of Horn’s decades-long fascination with water, both as a material and a metaphor. Known for her provocative approach to perception, identity, and the mutability of form, Horn uses water to mirror human experience and emotion. Born in 1955 in New York, Horn has spent decades pushing the boundaries of art to explore the complexities of identity, perception, and nature.  

Horn’s body of work spans photography, cast glass, and installation, consistently returning to the theme of fluidity. Her iconic series You Are the Weather—100 photographs of Icelandic artist Margrét Haraldsdóttir Blöndal submerged in water—reveals how water can both obscure and define identity. Similarly, her “liquid” glass sculptures play with the tension between solidity and fluidity, their colors ranging from turquoise to black. In an era marked by climate change and water scarcity, Horn’s works pose urgent questions about water as a shared resource and a symbol of impermanence and survival.  

This volume not only offers a retrospective of her water-centered works but also connects them to broader global challenges with critical and poetic texts by Nora Burnett Abrams, Jarrett Earnest, Anne Carson, and the artist herself.

About The Author

Nora Burnett Abrams is the Mark G. Falcone Director of MCA Denver. Jarrett Earnest is a writer and curator based in New York City. Anne Carson is a writer and poet. Roni Horn is an artist based in New York City.