Lawrence Weiner is one of the central figures in Conceptual Art. In 1968, Weiner had an artistic breakthrough when he began using language as the primary vessel for his work, a style he is still known for, today. Like many other Conceptual artists in the early 1970s, he investigated new forms of displaying art and challenged the notion of what an art object constituted. Most of his work consists of wall installations, composed solely of words and letters. The lettering does not need to be done by the artist; the painter must solely comply with Weiner's original instructions for creation. The subject of his work usually deals with a process or physical actions. He later explored how punctuation, color and shape interact with the epigrammatic statements.

His work for The University of Iowa combines these themes present in his oeuvre. In Line with A Thing In Itself is concise, and almost paradoxical in meaning. However, it does rely on color and an abstract shape evolved from a punctuation mark. His large installation on glass surrounds visitors with a space characterized by linguistic, rather than environmental features.