FROM CAVE PAINTING TO COMIC STRIP

The redoubtable scholarship, and the happy turn of phrase again combined to a history of visual communications from ancient times to the present. In a collaboration with Marie Neurath, who has chosen more than two hundred illustrations- in black and white and color- to coordinate with the text, this is also a very beautiful piece of bookmaking. Here the pictorial symbol, as a means of communication, is traced from the signatures and seals of the early cave painting, to the first calendars, alphabet, numeral systems, on to printing, stereotypes and isotypes; books and advertisements, the comics (which have thrived on ""criticism, condemnation and contumely"") and finally films and television. The culture of today, its antecedents and development, through one medium of expression- given a spirited and sparkling interpretation.