Ben Beres’s exquisitely detailed prints went on display last night at Davidson Gallery in Occidental Square. My favorite, Artist Statement, is impossible to read—like so many artist’s statements. This time, it’s not because of the density of the language or the blankness of the cliches, but because the letters are just too small to make out. (Although I did see a few “shit”s.)

It reminded me of two other recent “Artist Statement” works in Seattle: Tony Weathers reading his artist statement on video, letter for letter, using NATO and aviation code words like “alpha” and “bravo,” and Wyndel Hunt’s installation including his art-world-weary, self-conscious artist statement.

From my review of Hunt’s show last summer:

The Sharpie drawings, the environment, and Hunt’s artist’s statement, which he considers a part of the work, are the basis of something fascinating. “Exhausted skepticism that statements of intent or explanations of creative process refer to actual theoretical entities or mental events has lead [sic] me to believe that for artists, these statements and explanations are themselves fictional objects,” he wrote in his statement. Artworks, then, are not lost limbs whose purposes remain but lost purposes whose limbs remain.

Seems a great moment in the city when its artists are asking themselves not only what they ought to be making and how, but what—and whether—they (and artists in general) have to say or to give in the first place. Big work can come from there.