Text and Image

Images are inextricably part of book culture, from the cover or binding that we first encounter when we pick up a book, to the illustrations, diagrams, devotional images or prints that enhance, explain or even contradict the text.

manuscript page with coloured illustrations of religious characters

How we read images and their relationship with text is a central focus of this research strand.

We understand images in the broadest of senses, as physical illustrations in books, as pixels in a digital image, as visualisations of data, maps and geographies, school textbooks and scientific images as well as the text itself as image in the practices of calligraphy and typography, for example.

We are interested in research on all kinds of image makers who interact with the book too, from the reader’s doodles and marginalia, to the artist’s book or the typesetter’s designs.

The movement and translation of images across cultures and time periods is a central concern, which will be enhanced by the Centre’s focus on interdisciplinary and cross-cultural approaches to the Book.