Defines the scope of research concerning "inscriptions in painting" from a semiotic point of view. Shows that in cases from medieval pictograms to modern new concreteness inscriptions are used to subvert the pictorial content of art works. (RS)

Argues that Fernand Leger avoids the mimetic use of literary elements in order to subvert the conventions of the illustrated book and subordinates meaning to a graphic interplay where word and image can, on occasion, become interchangeable. States that Leger subverts the borderline between readable and nonreadable, lyric and painterly. (RS)

Notes that Jules Kirschenbaum, a modern American artist whose work integrates inscriptions and figurative painting, studied under the masters of abstract expressionism yet exhibited with protagonists of "magic realism." States that his later work took a wholly different turn--it became art about meaning and the "meaning of…

Examines the interdependence of language and image in a poster series by Shosaku Arakawa and relates the displacement of writing from the book page to his canvases or posters to theories of performative language to show that his work is itself performance. (DF)

Argues that Rene Magritte's experiments with words and images are preceded by other experiments with his surrealist friends in Brussels. States that the surrealists' failure to adequately represent women causes Magritte to treat both images and words as mere representations, subject to an equally radical splitting from the "real" thing…

States that the painted words in Jasper Johns' art act in two different capacities: concealed words partake in the artist's interrogation of visual perception; and visible painted words question classical representation. Argues that words are Johns' means of critiquing modernism. (RS)

Identifies two major groups of pseudoinscriptions: distinguished inscriptions which do not convey text but appear to be real things; and proper pseudoinscriptions which may have clearly delineated individual letters that taken together make no sense. Identifies Venice and the Netherlands as centers of Arabic and Hebrew pseudoinscriptions in the…

Attempts a semiotic experiment to explore the fluctuations of meaning produced by interferences between textual and figurative representation within one picture. Discusses examples such as the portrait with its presentation of the subject and the topographical city plan. Provides an in-depth exploration of Philippe de Champaigne's "Ex-voto of…

Argues that William Blake's illustrations for Thomas Gray's "Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat" testify to the contradictions in Gray's poetry. States that Blake's designs offer another language, a contra-diction, that deconstructs Gray's conscious discourse and liberates his unconscious discourse. (RS)

Offers Alain Robbe-Grillet's novel "La Belle Captive" (which employs 77 paintings by the Belgian surrealist Rene Magritte) as playful interchange between word and image. Argues that the novel may be understood to demonstrate a fundamental relationship of inequality between word and image. (RS)