text as image, image as text, image as poetry in art

Text as Image

Text as Message

Text as Poetry

Glenn Hirsch

Illuminated Manuscripts

Before the invention of the printing press in Europe around 1455, all books were handwritten and decorated. The word manuscript is derived from the Latin words manus (hand) and scriptus, from scribere (to write).

Illuminated, from the Latin illuminare (to light up), denotes the glow created by the radiant colors of the illustrations, as well as by real gold and silver.

Illuminations took the form of decorated letters, borders, and independent figurative scenes, also called miniatures.

Ciecro’s Aratea 9th century

IText as image

the text isn't meant to be read, but is a design element

IIText as message

the text is meant to communicate an idea

IIIText as poetry

the text is meant to communicate multiple shades of meaning through irony, metaphor or mood

Text as imagethe text isn't meant to be read, but is a design

element

if you don't understand Japanese, then this character is still beautiful for its gesture, rhythm, and play of positive and negative shape

Most of the time, text appears in ruled lines, vertical or horizontal in a gridded pattern

Wosene Worke Kosrof

but not always

the beauty of line as expressed in handwriting

Karen Justis

do you read

music?

If not then this is ‘text as

image’

“marking time”

made-uppictograms

I appropriate Mayan glyphs for their appearance not their meaning so I take them out of context

Correct orientationMy orientation

Mayan ‘code’

code of an electrical diagram

code of DNA

Mayan ‘code’

HTML code

codes overlapping: Mayan, HTML, DNA

codes overlapping: Mayan, HTML, DNA

IIText as message

the text is meant to communicate an idea

Text as MESSAGE – the word of God

Text as MESSAGE –

“this is not a pipe”

Text as message:

the language of advertising subverted

Jenny Holzer

Text as message:

the language of advertising subverted

Barbara Kruger

Barbara Kruger

Barbara Kruger

Barbara Kruger

Barbara Kruger

Banksy

Text as poetry

the text is meant to communicate multiple shades of meaning

through irony, metaphor or mood

journalistic poetic

Two versions of the same piece

journalistic poetic

chalkboard installed on gallery wall

Marty Skocilich

irony

Geri Rebstock

irony

Kim Schoen

find poetry by selecting it from a larger text

Tom Phillips

find poetry by selecting it from a larger text