Language simplifies communication as much as it complicates it. Nevertheless - in a brave attempt to traverse the multiple roles of words - the show Words: a User Manual, at Exhibit 320 in Lado Sarai, Delhi, enthuses, creates, and tugs at the potential of words in daily life, their use and the stories they stir.

The exhibit, curated by Himali Singh Soin and inspired by French novelist Georges Perec,whose body of work toyed with as many forms of word-play as his creativity allowed, weaves diverse installations revolving around text. Each of the seven featured artists brings their distinct backgrounds on the table, working with text to reveal in myriad ways the duplicity that is inherent in the very nature of words, the dichotomy between their form and their meaning.

The platform created by this exhibit takes you as far your imagination will go: allowing the "user" (viewer) to interpret each ensemble in as many ways as they can or want to.

Upon entry into the space, one is met with a city of words created by Sachin George Sebastian’s folded newspapers. Further into the exhibit, one encounters ‘Flux’: an installation by Hanif Kureshi that uses deliberate codes to create compositions of four letters coming together to form a single word. The random order with which each letter electronically roles into another questions the relations between code and language: type is, before anything else, image, not necessarily associated with meaning or story.

The installation by Raqs Media Collective is dedicated to the contribution books have made to ideas, dreams, and learning, and the intellectual debt that the devouring of these words has created.

Moving further, Sarnath Banerjee’s illustrations and stories of ‘lost and found,’ contributed to by over 30 individuals from various professions, could be yours for the taking as they entwine personal experiences into the lush garden of text, and symbolic elucidation.

The works of the remaining artists – including Zuleikha Chaudhari’s sound installation, Re: Locate, Prayas Abhinav’s videogame, The Decay of Meaning, and Vibha Galhotra’s Hindi script, halting us at the entrance: Asuvidha ke liye khed hai (Inconvenience is regretted) – all use varied mediums to juxtapose and explore the connection of meaning with its representation.

The exhibition is up until 30th of December, 2011 and is open to all (for interpretation).