The title of this book, Language and Beyond, suggests a dynamic relationship between two poles in which language is confronted with an otherness that is apparently fundamental to it, and towards which it is seen to be reaching. But what is the beyond of language? Is it an object or an image? Do images, visual or aural, actually constitute a beyond of language? The interdependence of words might appear to perpetuate an absence instead, and yet signs can also be seen to establish a presence by their very materiality. The articles in this collection investigate and therefore postulate some form of dialogue between word and image, but they also test semiotic borders, examining the various shades of the interdependence, conflict or dominance, and the orientation of the relationship.