In her conceptual practice, Nancy Dwyer examines the ways in which language is presented in various mediums, such as print and television advertisements, and how these disparate contexts can impart it with different, and sometimes loaded, meanings. In the case of this painting, the letters that sit on a background of floating bubbles are in a formally delightful, even jovial typeface. However, what the letters spell out immediately contradicts any lightheartedness. Dwyer’s mischievous use of a cartoon aesthetic for such heavy language riffs on the prevalence of mixed messages in pop culture, where images often differ from content or diverge from context.

Label from Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One: Humor and Satire from the Collection, November 19, 2016–March 19, 2017