If anybody is still tracking this thread: Ok, easy enough to answer. It was yet another thread on this site where I found it. Here is some code that got me started:

use strict;
use warnings;
use Win32::OLE;
$Win32::OLE::Warn = 3;
my $path = "c:\\Documents and Settings\\eggmatters\\Desktop\\VisioProj
+ect\\";
my $file = "viSamp.vsd";
my $Visio = Win32::OLE->new('Visio.Application', 'Quit');
my $VDocs = $Visio->Documents;
my $VDoc = $VDocs->Open("$path$file");
my $VPage = $VDoc->Pages->Item(1);
my $VShapes = $VPage->Shapes;
my $VShape = $VShapes->Item(1);
$VShape->{Text} = "New Name";

print $VShape->{Text};
$VDoc->SaveAs($path."test2.vsd");
[download]

Here, I've assigned the text before dicerning it but that doesn't matter. To 'get' the text, you just need to call $VShape->(Text); and there you have it. For people like me who have to rely on Visio modeling of Web sites and applications, This will definitely be a huge bonus in implementing validation tools and chart editors.