<DIV><P>"X" is one of the most provocative representations in contemporary culture: a symbol of capital, power, waste, and illicit desire. Based on the connection between language and lack, Sign after the X ______ investigates the letter "X" that is used in our culture as part of a complex sign system that encompasses the evolution of language back to its mythic origins.</P><p>Including many of her drawings, Marina Roy uses narrative—and the book conventions of the dedication, preface, introduction, postscript, errata, and index—to form a compendium of X words that is part philosophical treatise on the foundations of image and text, part illustration, part math lesson, and part language primer.</P><p>For the author, the combination of text and image arises from a desire to make words "flesh" as it were, a desire to treat text as a thing that, in its visual impact, and in its arbitrary association with everyday objects, creates new meaning, leading to revelations about "how myth is constructed in our culture."</P><p>Beguiling in its ambitions, <I>Sign after the X ______ </I>is a subjective, subversive dictionary of modern culture that forces readers to see the world in a new light.</P><p>"An original and a joy to read. . . . <I>Sign after the X ______ </I>is a buffet, a collage. . . ."—<I>Globe & Mail</I></P><p>"Delightful in conception. . . . This is meaty, interesting stuff, and its eclecticism is lovely."—Georgia Straight</P><p>"Clever, insidious."—PopMatters.com</P><p><B>Marina Roy </B>is an artist whose practice includes sculpture, printmaking, painting, photography, and bookworks. She teaches fine arts at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.</P></DIV>