Evaluation, reflection, comment and analysis : twenty years of Image & Text

Abstract

Image & Text was conceptualised at the dawn of South Africa's radical socio-political transformations and has become a mirror that reflects the changes in the country's history and the impact on disciplines such as design, fine art, art history, popular culture, visual studies, and social anthropology. Over the past two decades, Image & Text has provided a platform for critical discourse that resulted in a large body of mainly new knowledge. Since 1992, Image & Text has published more than 170 articles, editorials and reviews by around 120 authors, spanning close to 1,600 pages. This is an impressive track record when one considers that most feature articles were peer-reviewed and therefore many more did not make it to the publishing stage. The editorial focus, quality of articles and ever-expanding scope of inclusive discourse that the journal has facilitated over the years are noteworthy in the South African visual culture landscape.