Channeling the rituals and symbolism of Freemasonry, Girl Guides, and childhood games, Goodchild creates an origin story for an imagined secret society. A series of arches and dioramas entice the viewer through the gallery, representing the stages of initiation revealed in a vision to the eponymous Anna Ward Brouse. A sense of rich but obscured meaning evokes the feelings of reverence, fear, and strange comfort that accompany all ceremonies of passage.

Anna Ward Brouse is a fictitious character, lived in Pennsylvania in the early nineteenth century. At the age of twenty-three she is struck by a vision of a dark forest scene. In this vision she sees young girls practicing rituals within the forest. What she is in fact witnessing is a secret organization (also imaginary) that thrived in Germany in the sixteenth century. As the children who began the society grew into adults they maintained their loyalty and passion for the way of life that they had developed. This secret organization was eventually linked with witchcraft and eradicated, leaving no members to carry the word. Anna Ward Brouse is mysteriously connected to this long dead society. She slowly reveals their practices and beliefs to a growing secret community of her own.

The three arches and scenes are inspired by the three pillars of Freemasonry: wisdom, strength and beauty. This triad is linked to the origin story of the secret society revealed to us by Anna Ward Brouse. The first arch represents wisdom or the seed of knowledge. Within the diorama the girl has been enlightened. Her path is revealed. The second arch stands for strength or growth. The organization grows through the support of others initiated. The word is being taught. The third arch represents beauty and harmony. Now banded together the girls tame the beast, becoming harmonious with the wilderness that was once their enemy.

The text in the arches is derived from The Odes of Solomon, as translated by J. Rendel Harris, MA. Hon. Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge.

The text in the hooked rug is from The Wisdom of Solomon, taken from the King James Bible, Apocrypha .

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