An illegible message is frustrating, threatening and frightening and the one who can decipher it holds a position of power. In the Bible, even, a ghostly, anonymous hand that writes a message in a language he cannot read visits the king Belshazzar, of Babylon. Terrified, the king calls for Daniel to read the "writing on the wall," promising him riches and power. Daniel reads him the message; it is a prophecy of the judgment and fall of Babylon. Daniel receives his riches, but that night, the king is found dead. (Daniel. 5:1-31.) As Foucault and Deleuze have theorized, the written word is an instrument of power, the foundation upon which governments, kingdoms and dictatorships are built. (Sartwell, "Graffiti and Language.") The written word that those in authority cannot read, then, undermines their power. In effect, the RAMM:ELL:ZEE's armored letters and wild style graffiti are the texts pronouncing the fall of the modern Babylon.

via