Lawrence Weiner is a very Transatlantic artist, who lives in Amsterdam and worked all over Europe. He exhibited at M HKA with Liam Gillick in 2011. Unlike the visual poets, who start with language, Weiner bases his ‘tectonic’ text pieces on sculpture and painting, as his most-quoted piece indicates. 1. the artist may construct the piece; 2. the piece may be fabricated; 3. the piece need not be built. Weiner’s words are of the world, as concrete as things. Perhaps his greatest contribution to the 'Essential' is to make the flesh become word.