Section from the "Survival Series," from the portfolio In a Dream You Saw a Way to Survive and You Were Full of Joy

An Ohio native, Holzer gained critical attention in New York City in the early 1980s, amid the AIDS outbreak. Her text-based works appeared in unsuspected locations such as posters, projections on buildings, t-shirts, condoms, and benches. In post-structuralist fashion, she appropriates text fragments that are benign on their own but take on pointed significance depending on where they are installed.

Holzer was an early activist in the fight for AIDS research and treatment. The phrase, "In a dream you saw a way to survive and you were full of joy," comes from her Survival Series (1983–1985), which warned about the dangers of everyday living. Here, it adorns a portfolio box produced for an AIDS fundraiser.