Long Gallery: Sampler (Books), 2000

The texts of Sampler (Books) have to do with parallels between literary and mortal sorts of existence, so the sampler took a place in the Long Gallery, with its cases holding Mrs. Gardner’s collection of rare books. Included among these volumes—there are over a thousand altogether—are the Book of Hours of Mary Queen of Scots, essays by Sir Francis Bacon, and autographs of Sir Walter Scott, Ben Jonson, and Samuel Pepys. There are also three early editions of Dante’s Divine Comedy, with engraved illustrations for the Inferno after drawings by Botticelli.

Photograph by Yoav Horesh