Seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognizes before it can speak. But, there is also another sense in which seeing comes before words. It is seeing which establishes our place in the surrounding world. The relation between what we see and what we know is never settled. This is a book on art in various languages.
The current edition sells 10,000 copies per year in the UK alone, and is a key text for anyone studying design or visual culture. With illustrations.