WORDS – Christoph Niemann

“What can you do with a word?
For me drawing and writing are very closely related. Both a word and a picture have the power to express extremely complex thoughts and emotions with amazing simplicity. Think of the word “love,” or a drawing of a smiling face. Being able to understand words and images opens the door to knowledge, communication, and connection to people all over the world.”

“One of the biggest differences between a word and an image is that most of us learn to understand images through happenstance or playful discovery, whereas learning to read and write usually requires a conscious effort. My aim for this book was to make the discovery of words equally fun and inspiring. By showing more than three hundred key words in the context of simple scenes, I am inviting kids (and readers of all ages) to intuit and puzzle out meaning, ;and to see language as a source of ideas and stories.”

“Browse the pages to discover words you don’t know (or find a new facet of the ones you do)! Create your own stories or poems by combining words, images, and ideas. Can you think of other words to describe the images, or new drawings to interpret the words? Cover a word with your nger and ask a friend to guess it just by looking at the picture. Or pick a word and draw (or write) what you think happens next. . .”

“I hope Words will help you celebrate language and art—at home, at school, in the car, on a plane. And I hope you have fun!”

LIMITED EDITION (full cloth case, includes a signed and numbered 2 color silkscreen print).

Editorial Note:

The idea originated from a collaboration with the wonderful SeeChangeNYC and Lonni Tanner to create a set of cards for the New York City Department of Education to inspire children to learn English in a playful way.