Embroidery (Tower of Babel). 2004. Hand embroidery on linen. 57 x 43 in. (144.8 x 109.2 cm)

The Library of Babel, 1941

The impious maintain that nonsense is normal in the Library. They speak of the "feverish Library whose chance volumes affirm, negate and confuse everything like a delirious divinity." In truth, the Library includes all verbal structures, all orthographical variations, but not a single example of absolute nonsense. Solitary, infinite, useless, incorruptible, secret, the Library is unlimited and cyclical. If an eternal traveler were to cross it in any direction, after centuries he would see that the same volumes were repeated in the same disorder (which, thus repeated, would be an order: the Order). My solitude is gladdened by this elegant hope.

—Jorge Luis Borges