Facing the camera, VALIE EXPORT breathes onto glass. It's a simple but powerful action. VALIE EXPORT creates a feeling of tension and transforms the act of breathing into a language, both audio and visual, by a succession of compulsive breaths.

By carefully watching the artist at work, we can see that she is tracing letters and writing a message on the glass with her breath. It is a form of writing that doesn't have a material form, which can only be understood because we recognise the signs. If we refer to the title of the video, Breath Text: Love Poem, we can infer that the message written on the glass – and therefore on the screen that the viewer is watching – is Ich liebe dich, or "I love you". Is the artist associating the idea of love to something that makes us breathless?

This recording can be compared to Visual Text: Finger Poem, a video in which she makes assertions in sign language.