About

Yadina Clark

I am an artist, educator, and researcher specializing in the structural analysis and typology of non-maze labyrinths. Since 2012, I have designed and built labyrinths, facilitated walks, and led workshops. In 2015, I completed a Master of Fine Arts in Intermedia at the University of Maine, focusing on land art and liminal aesthetics, especially the design and use of labyrinths.

My current research grew out of this earlier work in labyrinth design and analysis. Questions about how labyrinth structures could be described, compared, and systematically represented led to increasingly formal work in pattern analysis, typology, symmetry, component composition, and computational methods. In 2024, I began the PhD in Interdisciplinary Studies program at the University of Maine.

My doctoral research centers on the development of the Pattern Analysis, Typology, and Holarchy (PATH) framework for the structural analysis, classification, comparison, and representation of non-maze labyrinths. As this work has developed, I have shared emerging ideas and findings with others in this small, specialized field and formed the international Labyrinth Typology Research Group to support discussion and exchange around ongoing research.

Labyrinths of New England Website

Non-Maze Labyrinths

Although the words maze and labyrinth are often used interchangeably, they describe structurally different kinds of path systems. Mazes are organized around route choices and navigational problem solving, while non-maze labyrinths guide movement through a coherent path system organized in relation to one or more centers.

Labyrinths have a long and geographically widespread history. Examples and representations dating back several thousand years are known from southern Europe and the Mediterranean region, with later forms appearing throughout the Roman world, in medieval churches and manuscripts, in turf and stone labyrinths across northern Europe, and in other regions including South Asia and the Americas. In recent decades, renewed international interest has led to widespread construction and adaptation of labyrinths in both public and private settings.

Labyrinths have served symbolic, ritual, religious, contemplative, artistic, recreational, and community purposes. They appear as permanent and temporary walkable installations, architectural and landscape features, carvings and mosaics, portable designs, and finger labyrinths. Today they are used in settings ranging from churches, parks, gardens, schools, and healthcare environments to private homes and community spaces.

Selected Publications and Research

Clark, Yadina, and Jeff Saward. “Labyrinth Typology: A Century of Fascination.” Caerdroia: The Journal of Mazes & Labyrinths, no. 54 (2025): pp. 52–57.

Saward, Jeff, & Yadina Clark. “Labyrinth Typology: Overview of Past and Current Research.” Presented at the 23rd Annual Gathering of The Labyrinth Society, online, October 23-24, 2021. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8ix-tMu_9o

Clark, Yadina Z., "The Sacred Art of Labyrinth Design: Optimization of a Liminal Aesthetic" (2015). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 2337. https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/etd/2337

Research Context and Acknowledgments

This research builds on more than a century of work on labyrinth documentation, terminology, topology, classification, and design. It has also developed through conversations and exchanges with contemporary labyrinth researchers.

Research conversations and exchanges: Jeff Saward, Richard Myers Shelton, Andreas Frei, Erwin Reißmann, Tony Phillips, Dani Novak, Walter Pullen

Earlier and related work informing this research:

Tony Phillips (US)
Richard Myers Shelton (US)
Jeff Saward (UK)
Andreas Frei (Switzerland)
Erwin Reißmann (Germany)
Hermann Kern (1941-1985, Germany)
Jacques Hébert (1938-2007, Canada)
Silke Wolf and Werner Kaufmann (Germany)
Alex Champion (US)
Walter Pullen (US)
Robert Ferré (US)
Lars Howlett (US)
Willem Kuipers (The Netherlands)
Herman Wind (The Netherlands)
Pierre Rosenstiehl (France)
Craig Wright (US)
Ellen Galo (US)
Mary Teetor (US)
Niels Mejlhede Jensen (Denmark)
Ben Nicholson (US)
Thorn Steafel (Scotland)
Sig Lonegren (The Netherlands)
John Kraft (Sweden)
And others whose work has inspired and informed

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