Mel Bochner (b. 1940) is recognized as one of the leading figures in the development of conceptual art in New York in the 1960s and 1970s. At a time when painting was increasingly considered old-fashioned, Bochner became part of a new generation of artists looking for ways to break with Abstract Expressionism and traditional compositional devices. His pioneering introduction of the use of language into the visual led Harvard University art historian Benjamin Buchloh to describe his 1966 Working Drawings as "probably the first truly conceptual exhibition."

As painting slowly lost its preeminent position in modern art, language went from talking about art to becoming part of art itself. Bochner has consistently investigated the conventions of painting and language, the way we construct and understand them, and the way they relate to each other to make us more attentive to the unspoken codes that underpin our engagement with the world.

Bochner's works based on written language have been exhibited over the last few years in various solo exhibitions at different museums, including The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, 2006; The National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., 2011; Haus der Kunst, Munich, 2013; Museu de Arte Contemporanea de Serralves, Porto, Portugal, 2013; The Jewish Museum, New York, 2014 or The National Museum of Art, Osaka, 2023.