Anytown USA

Jack Pierson

2000

Found letters, painted metal, plastic letters, and neon

Dallas Museum of Art

Using cast-off commercially made letters from ruins of the recent past—defunct movie houses, roadside signs, and storefronts—American artist Jack Pierson created one of his most ambitious and effective word sculptures (a series for which he has become particularly well known). Recalling the atmosphere of despair, loss, and longing familiar in the paintings of Edward Hopper and the poetry of Beat generation writer Jack Kerouac, “Anytown USA” turns the allure of advertising on itself, reflecting a reality less shiny, assured, and sexy. “Anytown USA” shows us a beauty, albeit bittersweet, in the desires, longing, and loss of people in