From A (Alice) to B (Bob) but not to E(Eve)

By Betty Hahn

20” by 28”

In the early days of cryptography, before computers, a coded message was sent from the sender A (Alice) to B (Bob) but hidden from E (Eve). The actual sender and recipient were not always identified. Many types of code were used and the recipient had to have a “key” to decode it. Later cryptography on the computer used a series of 0’s and 1’s which were impossible to decode without a key. In this piece I used a combination of alphanumeric symbols and nonsense combinations of letters to form “words”. Hidden in my text are real words and phrases which can easily be read if found. In the center of the “b” is a coded message sent by A.Lincoln to General Broadside on Nov. 25, 1862. It appears to be ordinary words, but it makes no sense. A key would be needed to read it. See how many recognizable words and phrases you can find “hidden” in this piece.