This book is about how language deals with the non-verbal and about linguistic resposes to painting. Scobie writes that the unity in this book lies "in its relation to a central complex of ideas - the interaction between language and painting: the specific case of Cubism; the extension of Cubism into Concrete Poetry." Scobie provides an excellent background of Cubism's beginnings with emphasis on the roles of Apollinaire and Daniel Kahnwieler, the art dealer. He discusses the placing of fragmented words into Cubist paintings as word-play and puns.In his chapter on concrete poetry, Scobie "attempts to situate the international movement of the 1950's and 1960's within larger cultural tendencies, such as the transition from modernism to post modernism," and he reviews the collaboration between bp Nichol, the Canadian poet and Barbara Caruso, the Canadian artist. In the following chapter, Scobie deals with sound and visual poetry and concludes this section with an analyses of the poetic works of Ian Hamilton Finlay. Scobie dates the beginning of concrete poetry to 1955, when Decio Pignatari met with Eugen Gomringerin Ulm, Germany. He dates the end of the movement as 1967-68 with the publication of three anthologies edited by Emmett Williams, Stephen Bann and Mary Ellen Solt. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.