ABSTRACT
What is the relation, in a book, between the words and the pages on which they appear, and the pages themselves? This chapter sets out four possible answers. The first is in the thinking of medieval scribes, where the surface of the page is like a veil, woven by handwritten lines. The second, modelled on Renaissance principles of perspective, the surface is a window, through which the reader looks to find meaning behind. The third is in the operations of the printing press, where the page becomes a face, relating to others through surface-to-surface contact. Finally, the page gives way to the screen – the opposite of the veil from which we began.
