vorstellen the word

Images mediate between man and the world, in the sense that they represent the world. But in doing so, they also substitude themselves for the world. The German term "vorstellen" articulates this dialectic: images "stellen die Welt vor und stellen sich vor die Welt".

FLUSSER, Vilém, "Text and Image", Variantology 4, edited by Siegfried Zielinski and Eckhard Fürlus