text + work is the concept which underpins the exhibition programme at the Arts University College at Bournemouth. text + work promotes and provides a forum for challenging dialogue between innovative contemporary art, design, and media practice, and their theoretical contexts.

There are text + work gallery events, critical texts, shared and networked exhibitions, and the text + work website. The creative practice exhibited within text + work is thus made available to a wide audience, many of whom may never visit the gallery. It provides a platform for practitioners, writers, and curators who wish to examine and extend the boundaries between contemporary art practice and critical discourse. A text (essay) is published by text + work to accompany each exhibition in the programme.