{"product_id":"2026200015099-secondhand-this-is-not-a-pipe","title":"This Is Not A Pipe","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition remarks:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBook: Good\u003cbr\u003eJacket: No dust jacket\u003cbr\u003ePages: Good\u003cbr\u003eCondition remarks: Condition as shown in image\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat does it mean for a painting to say something, and can an image ever truly represent the thing it depicts? In This Is Not a Pipe, Michel Foucault dissects René Magritte's iconic 1929 surrealist painting — a meticulously rendered pipe beneath the paradoxical caption Ceci n'est pas une pipe — to unravel the complex, often fractured relationship between words, images, and the objects they claim to represent. Drawing on a fascinating personal correspondence with Magritte himself, Foucault argues that the painting stages a radical rupture in the classical system of resemblance, forcing the viewer to confront the fundamental instability at the heart of all representation.\n\nTranslated and edited by James Harkness, this compact yet intellectually commanding essay stands as a landmark text at the intersection of philosophy, art theory, and semiotics. Foucault's characteristically incisive prose dismantles the comfortable assumption that language and image operate in harmony, revealing instead a perpetual tension where neither can fully anchor meaning. Scholarly yet accessible, the work illuminates broader questions about how human perception and culture construct reality, and leaves the reader asking — if this is not a pipe, then what, precisely, is it?\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Secondhand Stock","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49203189121243,"sku":"2026200015099-SECONDHAND","price":12.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0523\/7646\/9701\/files\/d7356f6e-da5b-490e-aa98-3773a747fcd1.png?v=1788145347","url":"https:\/\/bookgrocer.com\/products\/2026200015099-secondhand-this-is-not-a-pipe","provider":"Book Grocer","version":"1.0","type":"link"}