Left: Johann Hartlieb (German, active 1450), Die Kunst Chiromantia. Augsburg: Georg Schapf, ca. 1475. Blockbook, hand colored. Purchased with the Bennett Collection, 1902, PML 10
Right: Emmet Gowin (American, b. 1941), Ground Zero and Lines of Sight for Aboveground Test, Frenchman Flat, Nevada Test Site, 1997. Toned gelatin silver print. Collection of Emmet and Edith Gowin
Between 1951 and 1992, the American government exploded 928 nuclear devices at the Nevada Test Site. When flying over it, Gowin was both amazed and depressed by the alien landscape of sand fused into glass—testimony to the misuse of human ingenuity.
Since antiquity, diviners have studied the patterns of the human palm to foretell human fate. Die Kunst Chiromantia (The Art of Chiromancy) was the first book ever printed on palm reading.