Neon signs, drawn from advertising and commerce, are among the unexpected formats that Bruce Nauman’s provocative and influential art takes. Formal properties of color, repetition, and scale play an expressive role in his neon word works; however, the ways that language addresses the world are also essential to their content. Wrapped around the corner of the BMA facade, the words VIOLINS VIOLENCE SILENCE share letters and form a poetic string of similar sounds. However, the meanings of the individual words appear unrelated, even contradictory, suggesting that the relationship between the physical composition of words and the ideas they convey can be startingly arbitrary. Alternatively, read as a sequence describing cause and effect, the three words suggest an aggressive act against art and beauty, and the solemn consequence. In 1982/1983, the BMA presented the exhibition Bruce Nauman: Neons, a pioneering first survey of the artist's works in that medium. Following the conclusion of the show, Violins Violence Silence (Exterior Version) was given to the BMA as a gift of Nauman's galleries. The work was initially commissioned by California State University, Long Beach, for its music department building, but then rejected by the school. A now ironic example of Nauman's art, the piece, which had succumbed to natural wear and tear over its thirty years on view, was conserved by Lightwriters Neon in 2014 with the guidance of the artist's studio.