Writing is Visual Art
Considering the boundaries and overlaps between art and writing.
Let’s start at the beginning, when drawing and writing were the same thing… At the dawn of history, this meant ‘cow’:
We can still understand the visual code here as a simple portrait of a generic ‘head of cattle’, the broad curve of its horns above the tighter ‘U’ shape of its head. Originally devised as a means of accounting to keep track of cattle, which were used as currency, and to aid with the introduction of taxation. The glyph was scratched into soft clay, which could be re-wetted and wiped clean for re-use.
“How much does that cow cost?”
“One cow, please.”
“I already have a cow…”
“Well that’s one cow you owe me.”
“Hang on a minute…”
When there arose a need for more permanently accurate records, ones that were harder to tamper with, clay was replaced with stone. It was more difficult to etch curves into harder materials, so the cow glyph was simplified and adapted into straight lines only:
Imagine reading one of these stone tablets upside down… perhaps this was the reaction to that first ever tax bill: “A A A !”
The letter for ‘cow’ survives to this day as the first letter of the Alphabet — a testament of the central importance of cows to ancient western societies.
