This course will explore some of the different ways in which books across the ages have provided a creative space for the text to interact with visual images. From hand-painted medieval manuscripts to woodcuts, engravings and lithographs to photographs and contemporary bandes dessinées, the illustrated text is a mirror of the evolution of artistic and printing techniques. Through analysis of a range of selected examples, we will explore such questions as what makes illustrations of literary works different from illustrations of other kinds of text? Is the function of these images primarily to entertain or do they provide information to complement or even change the message of the text? Should an author’s own illustrations be regarded differently to those of another artist? To what extent is the text-image relationship of a book illustrated during the author’s lifetime different to that of a book illustrated posthumously?