When Words Become Thresholds ...

... and The Secret History of the Dividing Line

The Enjoyment of Reading, Lost and Found (2001): book as strata

The Enjoyment of Reading, Lost and Found: circles of confusion

The Enjoyment of Reading, Lost and Found: sonnet by Michael Drayton

The Great Art of Knowing (2004): William Byrd bookplate

Moxon's Mechanick Exercises (1999): bible pages

Secret History of the Dividing Line (2002): film splices as landscapes

Secret History of the Dividing Line: film splices as landscapes

Like a moving panorama [the library] has passed from before many eyes, and is now slowly flitting from before my own.

~ George MacDonald, Lillith

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Stills from David Gatten's beautiful cycle of films, The Secret History of the Dividing Line: A True Account in Nine Parts, inspired by William Byrd's (1674-1744) library and writings. A gentle and enduring glance at both visible traces of demarcation in the forms of cartographical dividing lines, 16mm cement splices, and shadows of text lifted from their very foundation, as well as the less visible traces of demarcation that exist in translation, invisible fissures, sudden breaches, and unseen boundaries...

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{All images from Scott MacDonald's "Gentle Iconoclast: An Interview with David Gatten," in Film Quarterly, Winter 2007, Vol. 61.}