Visual pun
A visual pun is a pun involving an image or images, often based on a rebus.
Visual puns in which the image is at odds with the inscription are common in cartoons such as Lost Consonants or The Far Side as well as in Dutch gable stones. For instance, a gable stone in the village of Batenburg puns on the words baten and burg by depicting silver coins becoming gold in a castle.
European heraldry contains the technique of canting arms, which can be considered punning.
Visual puns on the bearer's name are used extensively as forms of heraldic expression. These are called canting arms. They have been used for centuries across Europe and have also been used recently by members of the British royal family, such as on the arms of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother and of Princess Beatrice of York. The arms of U.S. Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Dwight D. Eisenhower are also canting.
Surrealist artists such as Salvador Dalí, René Magritte, Marcel Duchamp, and Remedios Varo made extensive use of visual puns, as they played with shifting perceptions and reality. Graphic artists and photographers have used visual puns for a surreal or humorous effect, or to catch the attention of a viewer. Some types of optical illusions also operate within the liminal zones of perception.