Digital Commons Network^™

Douglas Coupland: Text As Art, Sarah Louise Houston

Art and Design Theses

This thesis discusses the art of contemporary Canadian artist Douglas Coupland and his use of textual art. It will explore his combinations of text and art through four major themes that are recurrent in both his writings and visual art: abundance, advertising, technology and translation and draw conclusions on the various reasons that text has become such an important component of his body of work. Overall, the thesis seeks to show Coupland’s unique use of text to create a modern take on Pop art that is able to highlight issues in society.