note to collage essay

A long time ago I studied a little Wittgenstein in school, hoping it
would help me understand how marks on paper could have meaning. Around
that time A.R. Penck's paintings were becoming well known and I saw
some things in his work I thought could be connected. I found a copy of
French Through Pictures by I.A. Richards and realized his idea was
based on the picture theory of language in Wittgenstein's Tractatus,
which W later rejected. Later, I found English Through Pictures, the
first in the series, and Spanish, and Hebrew. I thought it was the best
conceptual art I ever saw. We had the World Book Encyclopedia when I
was a kid and the history of each letter of the alphabet was pictured.
I thought a mythical history could be written in pictures in which
drawing is subjected to spoken language, and made to represent speech.
I also believed that thinking about this might help me develop a
composite word/picture poetry.