Writing on the Wall

the long version

"This study explores the strange, unsettling and often humorous results when words escape their traditional confines and inhabit artworks. It traces the growing bond between word and image in art, explaining how artists since the late nineteenth century have harnessed the resulting tension to form identities, challenge authority and make sense of a world in constant change. Arranged by significant movements from the impressionists to the present day. Writing on the Wall also reveals how artists have responded to an environment increasingly saturated with words, and how the mass media have adopted and adapted artistic devices in lypography, propaganda and advertising."--Jacket.