The paper cut installations of Gower, and two featured Afghan artists use sacred geometry to blend subtle imperfection with structured repetition. Gower’s paper cut pieces use stencils which are traced, and hand cut into large single sheets of painted paper. Townsend is inspired by Koran Illuminations and Tehzip patterns in the Ottoman style for her papercut works. Koran illuminations refer to “the use of gold to paint and decorate geometric organic form motifs to decorate the pages of Koran” (https://www.islamicillumination.com/blog/what-is-islamic-illumination). Tehzip patterns is a specific style of decorative, geometric art. One of the Afghan artists draws upon the Behzad School of Illumination, a group of artists who studied under Persian painter Ustād Kamāl Ad-dīn Behzād (circa 1455-1536) (https://www.britannica.com/biography/Behzad), for their calligraphic wall tracing pieces. Benitez uses linear perspective as a metaphor for Western Civilization. Their shared artistic and intellectual interests speak to the larger hybrid relationship that the West shares with the Middle East, and especially with the Golden Age of Islamic Civilization.