Symbols, Signs and Visual Codes

ICONOGRAPHY, SUBJECTS DEPICTED IN ART. Signs and symbols are integral to the world in which we live: from letters and words on a page to the constellations in the night sky; from the image of a god, the secret gargoyles on a cathedral roof to the meaningful winking of an eye. Symbols can seemingly be as simple as a cross, square or circle, or they can transparently be more conceptual signposts to or representations of complex abstracts such as the soul, resurrection, love or desire: all the elusive, illusory, shifting meanings and layers of over 1500 symbols and signs are covered in detail here, tracing their definitions and interpretations through centuries of time and a hundred changing cultures. There are also in-depth feature spreads and hundreds of visual images on some of the most important symbols of all: including the wheel, the cross, the male and female genitalia, the gateway and the tree of life.