Pursuing the prepositions of drawing

Abstract

This article is part of a wider research project exploring connections between ideas of grammar and drawing. Here, prepositions are the focus – tiny, overlooked, undeniably ubiquitous words that articulate crucial relations between their dominant cousins, verbs and nouns. They are dwelt on here for carrying deep metaphorical overtones and having considerable potential for visual engagement. The discussion is situated – in section 1 – via the playfully poetical philosophy of Michel Serres, and – in section 2 – through Barbara Tversky’s thought-provoking analyses of highly integrated verbal-visual patterning within the mechanics of thinking. Section 3 introduces the author’s visual glossary of grammar, currently in development. This aims to present the underpinning energy of grammatical forms which are key to language production, using simple visualizations to communicate the aesthetic drive of syntax in its organization of words. The digital drawings presented hark back to the formalized modernist abstractions considered in the first section, but also to the glyphs and basic visual vocabulary of common diagrams that have been analysed by Tversky. The article ends by suggesting that the crucial qualities of prepositions – being on the edge and in between, rather than obviously central to meaning like nouns and verbs – resonate particularly well with current tendencies in drawing practice and wider cultural debates.