You probably have to test the value of the TV, instead of the result from pdoResources.
Something like this:
[[+tv.assign_artist:!empty=`
<li>
Artist:
<span>
[[pdoResources?
&tpl=`@CODE:<a href="{{~{{+id}}}}">{{+pagetitle}}</a>`
&resources=`[[+tv.assign_artist:replace=`||==,`]]`
&parents=`0`
&outputSeparator=`, `
]]
</span>
</li>
`]]
(No need to call pdoResources uncached here!)