When Words Fail: Knowledge Production Through Practice-Based Art, Design, and Education

Set Margins', 2026, Softcover, 256 pages, 12.5 x 17.3 cm

How images, forms and gestures can be coopted into a new visual language capable of unsettling, reframing and provoking reflection

What tools can we adopt when words are no longer sufficient to describe what surrounds us? How can we construct new languages and new imaginaries capable of giving form to the complexity of our present? How do artists and designers use the tools of their practices to question reality, deconstruct dominant narratives and propose alternative perspectives?
When Words Fail weaves together the works and writings of more than 100 artists, designers, scholars and thinkers who, through different approaches, languages and sensibilities, explore the possibility of generating knowledge through image, gesture, form and action. Each contribution reclaims the value of practice-based research, presenting making as a tool to explore how we live together, teach one another and create meaning in times of uncertainty and urgency.