Mondzain's 'Le commerce des regards' Defines Image as Site of Crisis

In 'Le commerce des regards' (Éditions du Seuil), Marie-José Mondzain argues that the image is not a confused concept but the foundation of both visual freedom and community. She uses the biblical story of Ham seeing Noah's nakedness to illustrate how looking carries an incestuous charge, analyzing contemporary visual exhaustion as a dangerous fusion between gaze and object. Mondzain contrasts Jewish veiling of visible impurity with Christian veiling as an articulation between figure and the unfigurable. She warns that the current belief in a global witness who reports all visibility undermines the image's essential crisis: either we recognize the off-screen space that grounds the viewer's freedom, or we reduce the image to a consumable message. The choice determines whether images can unite singular gazes into a community. Mondzain criticizes the preference for accusing deceivers' illusions over acknowledging the disappearance of critical looking, calling for courage to 'look' again.