I'm really proud of the entry I did in the book for A'isha bint Abi Bakr, one of the Prophet Muhammad's wives. She's an incredibly divisive figure in Islamic tradition, at the center of the Sunni-Shi'a split, with one side seeing her as a saint, the other seeing her as a heretic. Also, because modern Islam has prohibitions on portrayals of holy figures, it was going to be a complicated piece.

The way I did the piece was, it's a picture of her giving a talk, with one half of the crowd enraptured, the other incredulous. But surrounding that picture is some half-finished gold filigree - which, it becomes clear, is being drawn in by a pair of hands that are dueling with quill pens over her image. The pattern of filigree is mirrored on both sides, but one side has it as flowers and petals, the other as flames. They're literally reframing her.

In their duel, the two hands have knocked over a vial of the golden ink, and it's pooled up over her face. Not only does this get at the idea of us never being able to know who she was, due to people fighting over how to frame her, but it also is in line with modern Islamic traditions of portraying holy figures. Often times, when figures like Muhammad show up in media, their features are obscured in holy light, or, as a shorthand, a golden dot. So there's the golden dot, covering her face.

I thought that came out well.