23 Word & Image

Not only is Word & Image still being published (Volume 1, Number 1 was the January-March 1985 issue), but it hasn’t changed its cover design or the editor in twenty years according to the photo on the web site. The first editorial said

“The scope of this new journal is potentially vast, since it proposes to attend to any interesting encounter between verbal and visual languages. In practice, three of the four issues each year will be focused upon one specific topic. . . [such as forthcoming] reading of pictures as signs, advertising, poems on pictures, children’s art and writing, iconicity in literature, and emblems . . .but every fourth issue. . . to the wider reaches [it] hopes to explore.”

The theme of the first issue was Ut Pictura Poesis, "as is painting so is poetry" (Horace, Ars Poetica), spanning the 15th through the 20th centuries. This is not a journal like some in my collection you can flip through and bloggosize or blogdify. It requires a quiet place and mind.

The final selection is an article by Robert Druce based on a poem by Martin Booth (Orbis Pictus) based on a pedagogical work by Comenius published in 1658, Orbia Sensualium Pictus, perhaps the first picture book intended for children. Booth died earlier this year, and Druce was listed in the obituary as one of his mentors. Dr. Hunt, the first and present editor of Word & Image, held a chair in English literature 20 years ago, but is now Professor and Chair, Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning at the University of Pennsylvania.

It is my recollection that I purchased this issue at a Friends of the Libraries book sale at OSU. I’ve checked OSCAR, the OSUL catalog, and the Fine Arts Library does have a complete set as do several other academic libraries in Ohio.

Word & Image
January-March 1985, Volume 1, Number 1
ISSN: 0266-6286
Subject: Communication in art
Publication schedule quarterly
Taylor & Francis Ltd.
4 John Street,
London WC1N 2ET
$40 personal subscription; $80 institutional subscription
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/02666286.asp
Senior Editor: John Dixon Hunt
Editor for this issue: Michael Leslie