Geschichte ohne Worte

Frans Masereel’s wordless woodcut novel Geschichte ohne Worte (Story Without Words), published by Zweitausendeins in 1978, is a landmark of silent visual storytelling. A single, potent issue, it distills Masereel’s expressionist mastery into a stark, universal narrative—a series of potent, black-and-white images that speak across language and time. This work stands as a key example of the early 20th-century European woodcut novel tradition, demonstrating how sequential art can achieve profound emotional and political resonance without a single word.