What are images? How do they differ from words? What exactly are images today, in a time when the power of the visible seems greater than ever before and where the pictorial turn has replaced the linguistic turn? W. J. T. Mitchell, one of the pioneers of Visual Culture Studies, answers these questions by examining the interplay of the visible and the sayable across all cultural domains, from literature to the fine arts to mass media. This volume brings together his most important essays, which have long been regarded as classics in the field of image studies.