What do Plato, Dante Alighieri, Raymond Lull, Giordano Bruno, Leibniz, and Ludwig Wittgenstein have all in common? They were all interested (or obsessed) in finding a universal language. While many thinkers have argued about the possible existence of a perfect language, only few have tried to find it.



After examining different models and explanations, Merhi came to the conclusion that a universal language cannot be made out of words but physical elements that can be recognized by anyone, employing the objects certain words denote. For example, he used hundreds of nails to depict the word nail in Korean, or hundreds of magnets to build and show the word magnet in Chinese. Thus, a perfect language functions as a material metalanguage instead of a natural or formal language.



Here, Merhi used 8 letters made of aluminum to depict the word aluminum in English.