This paper investigates the relationship between image and language, especially by using the lacanian concept of letter. This question is particularly explored in two works by the American videoartist Gary Hill: Around and About (1980) and Ura Aru (1985-86). We argue that the letter has two ways of incidence: a mix with image or a strong tension with it. This tension can, in some conditions, lead to a break in specular mode of functioning and provoke a kind of reversion of the imaginary, letting us approach what we name the "reverse of the imaginary". In this turning, the subject emerges in his utopic condition, since he has no definite place, but stands in an unforeseeable future.
image; language; letter; videoart; Gary Hill