This compilation of essays by 20 scholars trained in comparative literatures, art history, critical theory, and American cultural studies further explores and expands the spirited and energetic field of visual cultural studies and its cognate or supplemental projects of “visual practices” and “visual literacy.” Their topics and perspectives engage contemporary re-theorizations of “text,” of “word” and “image,” while their alignments, ruptures, slippages and aporias fall across a range of media practices and institutions. These include photography and exhibition, film,...