Hidden drives are invisible driveways to dwellings unseen, to residents whose identities and histories are unknown to the average passerby. Hidden drives can also be invisible because they are internal. Inculcated ideas, ingrained systems and structures, deep-seated memories, secret aspirations: These hidden drives influence how we navigate our world, how we see ourselves, how we stage our story.

This collection of essays, interviews, and recipes, centered around artworks—including many from the Mead Art Museum at Amherst College—helps visitors discern these hidden sites and stories and uncover how the unseen plays a pivotal role in scenes of home. How are our perceptions, experiences, and routines of home controlled by forces that might be invisible to some while intensely felt by others?

What happens to our sense of home when we start to pay attention to hidden stories—our own and others’?