When artists remove text, they invite readers to decode the pictures for themselves, so every child reads the book in their own unique way and according to their own personal life experiences and backgrounds. The most radical decision an artist makes is to not use words. Borders and other design elements are used to visually guide readers through a story and can indicate shifts from reality to fantasy or differentiate between story spaces.
The sequencing of the various page layouts creates a visually engaging reading experience. Multi-image pages can extend or compress time a single page of many panels can show scenes across long periods of time, or they can expand a single short moment in incremental detail. Pages can vary between single-page pictures, double-page spreads, or pages divided into multiple images. The absence of words gives artists complete freedom to design the pages without having to leave space for blocks of text or word balloons. The size of an image affects how the reader responds to a character, as does the size of the character within the image, and lighting and color amplify the emotional mood. Emotion is also shown through the context of the pictures. Artists create characters personalities through pictures alone, using facial expressions and body language to convey what they may be thinking or feeling.
While similar pictorial choices are made when illustrating books with and without text, in a wordless book the art requires a more intense visual focus on communicating the narrative. Artists are literally “writing with pictures,” as so aptly phrased by Uri Shulevitz. Images tell the stories and they must be read as carefully as any text. The name seems to say it all-it is a book without text where the story is told solely through the art.
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