Beyond Words
3,100 illustrations cut from dictionary and mounted on wall panels and the dictionary volume, 2007
Beyond Words displays every illustration from a 2,662 page dictionary, cut out by hand and mounted on wall panels. The caption that identifies each illustration remains in the dictionary, leaving the image disassociated from its assigned meaning. The holes left in this book become symbolic of fractured knowledge and miscommunication. This piece makes visible the limits of language, and asks several questions: what is chosen for illustration? when is an image needed? what is beyond words to explain or define? The deconstruction of a printed volume is presented as a question into its inverse process - the construction of meaning
