Somewhere between the mystery of prehistoric runes and the familiarity of modern cufflinks lies the key to decoding these symbols. Some are recognisable from Moore’s early carvings, such as his first large elmwood Reclining Figure 1936 (LH 175), in which the navel is depicted using an oval transversed by a straight line.

This shorthand abstraction relates both to the Constructivists in its geometric purity, but also to something more esoteric, less tied to any particular time or place. A version of TEX 14, here the symbols are kept either in black or white while the background is tried in various colours, from muted grey, ochre or tan to deep red and blue. Without the framework of the black sections, the symbols seemingly float in the field of colour, yet are strictly retained within their linear boundaries as characters in a script.