Essaoira’s Jewish community prospered in the 18th and 19th centuries. Persecution and emigration have long since obliterated it, but a tiny synagogue still exists in what is still known as Essaouira’s Mellah, or Jewish Quarter. The most symbolic subject in that synagogue is a blue wooden cabinet, called an Ark, holding scrolls containing the Five Books of Moses. It dates back to the 1800’s. A caretaker opened the outer doors of the Ark for us, allowing a glimpse of another door with a curved top, holding the holy scrolls within it. I used this inner door as an abstracting device – allowing the scrolls, known as a Torah, to recede into the darkness. Only a portion of the golden Hebrew letters on the velvet Torah cover can be seen, floating in the curved frame of this door within a door. By showing only part of the Torah, I symbolize the disappearance of the Jewish community from Essaouira.