In this age of proliferating visual communications, there is a permissiveness in subject matter, content, and meaning that is exhilarating, yet overwhelming to interpret in a meaningful or consensual way. By recognizing visual statements, whether a piece of sculpture, an advertisement, a video, or a building, as communication, one can approach their interpretation on different levels and in a number of different ways. The central thesis of this paper is that a visually literate approach to interpreting visual statements must be a flexible, context-relevant, ongoing reinterpretation, and reevaluation. Hence, visual literates have an obligation to explore a variety of perspectives such as art historical, mass communications, perception psychology, semiotics, and hermeneutics. There is a diagram that illustrates the systems for interpretation in communication theory is provided, as well as two lists that outline the various perspectives and categories of an eclectic, inclusive interpretation process. (Contains 35 references.) (DGM)