Leonardo da Vinci proposed this exercise to quicken invention: Study a stain on a wall. Imagination can discover a landscape with mountains, ruins, woods, battles, figures in action, expressions, and faces. (Asburnham Codex 144.) An unrivaled student of the world as it really is, Leonardo welcomed as well the might-be world of the imagination. He celebrated the transforming power of the creative eye.

We asked artists to consider a box of wooden kitchen matches. These are at first the simplest and fullest expression of mass production convenience and uniformity. And yet they can ignite the imagination. These anonymous forms offer an infinitely variable armature for the creative mind.