"News in Briefs", the little speech bubble that sat by the side of the mostly naked model of the day on the Sun's Page 3, is no more. The paper's new editor, David Dinsmore, has killed it off. Page 3? Oh no, that's quite safe. Some have greeted the demise of News In Briefs as a victory of sorts. But, in fact, its removal makes the Page 3 image a better poster: cleaner, unencumbered by textual distractions.

Katie Horwich: 'A nice 1950s floral dress. She looks like she’s got a conical bra on underneath. She definitely knows how to fill it.' Photograph: Katie Horwich

On Monday, Keely, 22, from Daventry became the last ever News in Briefs ("Kelly has high hopes for Andy Murray at Wimbledon after his heartache last year …"). By Tuesday, Lacey, 21, from Bedford, was silent on the page. Observant readers of the Sun will have noticed, however, that she "wrote" (talked to a journalist who wrote) a feature on body image towards the back of the paper. In a kind of agitprop, she said: "As I write this I'm about to tuck into a chicken kebab with a healthy portion of hummus on the side. That is one of the joys of my job – Page 3 is pro-curves, so I can eat, work, enjoy and be happy." In retrospect, this seems to have been the first clue from Dinsmore – predating his interviews on Wednesday with LBC and BBC Radio 5 Live – that he would be retaining the Page 3 images.

Katie Horwich: 'I like to think of this as my Tammy Wynette blouse.' Photograph: Katie Horwich

On one level, the News in Briefs "worked" because they juxtaposed a straight, jokeless tone with the model's big smile. To its critics, they mocked the very idea that a woman with a good body could have political views. I think they mocked the idea that a woman who was mostly naked would be talking about politics, and that that was the greater incongruity: "People say women with their breasts exposed have no place in a newspaper, but here I am talking about the news!"

Katie Horwich: 'I would have come back from holiday and rifled through recycling bins till I found the paper for the day I needed. She looks good in this.” Photograph: Katie Horwich

Either way, this seems a good time to take another look at the work of artist Katie Horwich, who in 2002 started "dressing" in gouache the women who appeared in that space in whatever she had herself worn that day. At first, that was mostly her Boots uniform. "It was a very hot summer. I had to wear this floorlength polyester skirt and top. I was looking for something naked I could paint my clothes on.I just thought: 'You look daft. I probably look daft.'" Later came frilly blouses, buttoned to the neck, 50s-style dresses and, "in a spell of unemployment", shapeless tracksuits. It seems a truism, but it is amazing the difference that clothing makes to the women on Page 3. Dressed, they look so innocent.

Ten years later, at the end of 2012, Horwich says, she stopped. Her initial idea had been to carry on until the topless photographs stopped. The campaign against Page 3 was gathering momentum. She bowed out, hopeful.

Katie Horwich: 'The general election, 2005. The Page 3 girls are saying to ‘nip out and vote Labour’. I wore that coat to go and vote probably.' Photograph: Katie Horwich

So might she start up again, now Dinsmore has made it clear they are staying? "When I started doing the project I was Page 3 age. I was 21. I felt myself as them and them as me. By the time I finished that element of it had gone. I thought: 'If I don't stop after 10 years, I could be doing it for ever.' I don't want to feel that it beat me but ... I feel a bit like it did."