Dictionary of a Lost Communication is a drawing series that transforms words into images, playing with the tension between concept and meaning. Denica Veselinova begins from the most stable form of language—the dictionary, that place of fixed and ordered definitions—only to overflow it with visual metaphors that speak of the fragile, the slippery, and the elusive nature of human communication.
Each work is a graphic “utterance” that does not seek to clarify but to open fissures, reflecting the sensations that emerge when language falters: misunderstandings, silences, implications, but also the emotional weight of what cannot be said. Drawing becomes a medium of translation that does not settle terms univocally, but shifts them into the realm of poetic ambiguity. In this gesture, what seemed to be a word becomes an image, and what seemed to be an image acts as an unstable sign, challenging the illusion that language can ever convey full meaning.
The series connects with Veselinova’s broader research on voice, translation, and failed communication, creating a coherent body of work where the visual and the linguistic intersect. Here, drawing acts as an “alternative dictionary” in which definitions are sensitive and affective, reminding us that language not only names but can also wound, disorient, or leave us suspended.
Each piece, approximately 21 × 29 cm, is both intimate and universal: a visual micro-narrative of the difficulties that permeate all communication, from the experience of the foreigner to the everyday slips between speakers of the same tongue.
Exhibitions:
- Sala de Arte Joven, Madrid (January – February 2017)
- Sala Borrón, Oviedo (October – November 2017)
- Set Espai d’Art Gallery, Valencia (January – March 2018)
