HEN I WAS INVITED to be the guest image editor for this issue, my first thought was, “You’ve got to be kidding.” I am a blind person. I have been blind since the age of eleven. To take on the responsibility of suggesting and selecting artwork to accompany the essays and stories in this issue seemed challenging, if not foolhardy. Still, like most blind people, I live in a visual culture. I grew up and went to school with sighted people. I read books, consume other media, inhabit architecture, and engage in social practices made for and by sighted people. On top of what I consider to be this common knowledge about the visible world among blind people, my understanding is enhanced by the fact that both my parents were visual artists. I grew up around their work, the tools and materials they used, their many artist friends and colleagues. Most important, I grew up around their talk, their conversations about the visible world and visual art. As an adult, I have always sought out the company of visual artists, in part because I find the way they talk about vision and the visible is more interesting and informative than, say, the discourse of ophthalmologists and perceptual psychologists. In
