Questions for readings

These articles, particularly the kostelnick article, talk about drawings (e.g. flatman) that are meant to be universal so everyone can understand what they are trying to say. However, these drawings in many cases are coming from handbooks such as the John Deere handbook that was mentioned. Within these books, I'm sure there is typically a written description to go along with these illustrations. Even if these illustrations are not successful in conveying the information which they are intended to convey, the text will hopefully elaborate in their native language. Where would you look to find illustrations that are meant to cross language barriers without accompanying text, particularly more elaborate ones like the John Deere illustrations as opposed to the simple no smoking et cetera?

With the world becoming geographically smaller in the sense that travel times to and from locations are becoming shorter and shorter with new technologies, these articles seem to touch on some very interesting and extremely applicable topics. This is something that until now many of us may have taken for granted. Is this a topic that has been looked at more closely in recent years? I noticed that both of these papers were published in 1995.