Structures as Argument: The Visual Persuasiveness of Museums and Places of Worship

Structures as Argument assesses museums, places of worship, monuments, and cemetery stones as means of visual persuasion. It argues that structures are equally capable of influencing viewers as speeches or advertisements are and that to miss this essential feature of them is to fail in understanding their cultural roles. The book spotlights museums ranging from such cultural icons as the Louvre and the British Museum, to such museums of collective memory as the Anne Frank House, to museums of pure visual persuasion such as the Doge's Palace in Venice. It features places of worship which range from Notre-Dame de Paris, to the Spanish missions of San Antonio, Texas, to the Protestant churches of America and includes a chapter on non-Western structures such as Chinese museums and Buddhist temples. Structures as Argument makes a significant contribution to the theory of persuasion, visual communication, and art history. It utilizes a theory of visual signs developed by Paul Messaris out of the semiotic theory of C. S. Peirce. In so doing, it demonstrates that artifacts of war, cathedral iconography, positioning of art objects for effect, and the art of gravestone sculpture all may be thought of in terms of means of social influence.

About the Author :
J. Donald Ragsdale is Professor and Chair of the Department of Communication Studies at Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, Texas, USA. He holds the PhD from the University of Illinois and is a member of the Southern States Communication Association, the National Communication Association, and the International Communication Association.

Review :
'Structures as Argument: The Visual Persuasiveness of Museums and Places of Worship edited by J. Donald Ragsdale opens a novel way to view and interact with structures that most people have grown to take for granted. Museums and places of worships are reframed as much more than containers of people and artifacts. Rather, readers are asked to consider the designers of the containers and the arrangers of their interiors as very smart strategists with messages to put forward; and to consider ourselves as members of their audience.' - Richard L. Conville, Professor, Department of Speech Communication, The University of Southern Mississippi.'This book will appeal to a very wide audience ranging from tourists to experts who are interested in visual communication and persuasion, to art historians and museum curators. The writing style permits ready access by the layperson and will challenge them to recognize the serious historical and cultural implications of what they might casually observe. This book is an early entry in a comparatively new field of study and will expand the reader's view, no matter how sophisticated, to embrace unexpected purposes associated with these visual structures. Nearly any reader can identify with one or more parts of this wonderful tour of these somewhat neglected dimensions of culture.' - Dr. Brooks Hill, Professor/Chair, Department of Speech and Drama, Trinity University.'[The book] offers a valuable contribution to visual rhetoric literature and rhetorical scholarship in general. Through an analysis of museums, places of worship, and monuments across the world, Ragsdale and colleagues advance visual rhetoric scholarship by presenting a convincing case that 'structures can and do function persuasively.' - Dustin A. Wood, Texas A&M University, Rhetoric and Public Affairs.