Words are everywhere. Ubiquitous, pervasive. Yet our relations with words are narrowly defined. How does the sound, feel, touch, taste, place, position, speed, and direction of words come to matter in their uses?
Word begins from the premise that, if we consider words only in terms of language and as images, we overlook a range of bodily, sensory, affective and non-conscious relations with words. We overlook, too, their epistemological, methodological, experiential and political implications. This book seeks to redress this neglect by exploringwords themselves in histories of language and contemporary theory, in print and typography, and through a series of empirical examples which include religion, embodiment, photography and performance.Wordis a reminder that words live richly in the world. It is an invitation to recognise those non-linguistic word-relations that are already existing, and to bring new and generative encounters with words into being.

Mariam Motamedi Fraseris a Reader in the Department of Sociology at Goldsmiths, University of London

Acknowledgements / Introduction/ 1. Words and Language / 2. Words in Print and in Printed Stories/ 3. Words Divine / 4. Words Textural / 5.Words Gestural / Conclusion / Bibliography / Index