This essay extends the notion of 'the death of the author' to an analysis of forms. The Work is the physical product, The Text is the consumption, where the ideas can live on and mutate. It's almost cliche now to look at an artwork and talk about 'the text that surrounds it', but this idea is relatively new, and represents for many the transition from Structuralism to Post-Structuralism.
Here it's very clearly explained by Tom Nicholas;
Acknowledgment of the text can transform meaning;
These images could be decor in a clinic. When put in the context of power and race they become powerfully loaded.
