^{Poet and visual artist Bertha Rogers speaks with an attendee at the opening for an exhibit of illuminations created for her 2019 publication, "Uncommon Creatures: The Anglo-Saxon Riddle-Poems From the Exeter Book." The event took place at Bright Hill Literary Center's Word and Image Gallery on May 6. (Photo by Mark Stodl)}

Illuminations Light Up
Word and Image Gallery in Treadwell

By TERESA WINCHESTER
TREADWELL

On May 6, Bright Hill Literary Center hosted its first art opening since the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020, with some 30 people in attendance. Appropriately, the featured artist was Bertha Rogers, who, with late husband Ernest Fishman, founded Bright Hill Press in 1992. 

The exhibit, in the center’s Word and Image Gallery, features 68 stunning illuminations inspired by poetic riddles from “The Exeter Anthology of Old English Verse,” a 10th-century collection of Old English poetry donated to England’s Exeter Cathedral by Bishop Leofric in the 11th century, known as the “Exeter Book.”

Rogers has translated all of the 95 “Exeter Book” riddles into English from Anglo-Saxon, the earliest recorded form of the English language.