- the waves on the shore offer smooth gestures in the sand

- the gravestone inscription weathers such that it appears to have lost all form, but not quite
This is hylography - the process of emergence and disappearance, intentional or unintentional, of graphical form out of matter.
- viewing an illuminated manuscript, we are drawn to the imagery and form of the letters as much as what they say
- the artist Jasper Johns incorporates letters and numbers in his work so that they lose their referential context and become things in-themselves
This is hylography - when text and graphic are experienced as material forms freed from intended signification and reference.
(hyle - Aristotle's word for matter; graphein is to write, to make a signifying mark, to draw)