In 1856, the extensive and culturally inclusive book The Grammar of Ornament, by Owen Jones, revealed a wide selection of decoration and design – from Maori tattoos to the motifs and architecture of the Alhambra – via folio-size color lithographs that dazzled audiences who had not previously been exposed to a wide swath of humankind’s obsession with making beautiful things, through history.

One notable takeaway from Jones’ book (that has never been out of print), which emerges as a primary message across his thirty-seven axioms, lies in the final chapter devoted entirely to recognizing decorative arts’ primary debt to the inexplicable, yet constant order of the sacred geometry found in nature. Where else must one look for pattern or ornamental inspiration than the spots of a ladybug, the veined wing of a fly or in sand rippled by wind and water, piled along the dunes?