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We describe and demonstrate an approach to magnetic particle imaging in which particle excitation and field free point (FFP) manipulation are decoupled from one another. The additional degrees of freedom enabled by this decoupling suggest alternative strategies for studying and exploiting contrast mechanisms, optimizing image quality and resolution, and device-size scaling. The prototype instrument we describe uses rotating arrays of permanent magnets to scan the FFP through the field of view and current-driven oscillating magnetic fields to elicit non-linear magnetization responses from superparamagnetic nanoparticles. Narrow-band phase sensitive detection of these responses at one or more harmonics of the excitation field provides a rich source of information from which images can be reconstructed. Images generated from data acquired using this instrument are presented, demonstrating the resolution of features with sub-millimetre dimensions.We describe and demonstrate an approach to magnetic particle imaging in which particle excitation and field free point (FFP) manipulation are decoupled from one another. The additional degrees of freedom enabled by this decoupling suggest alternative strategies for studying and exploiting contrast mechanisms, optimizing image quality and resolution, and device-size scaling. The prototype instrument we describe uses rotating arrays of permanent magnets to scan the FFP through the field of view and current-driven oscillating magnetic fields to elicit non-linear magnetization responses from superparamagnetic nanoparticles. Narrow-band phase sensitive detection of these responses at one or more harmonics of the excitation field provides a rich source of information from which images can be reconstructed. Images generated from data acquired using this instrument are presented, demonstrating the resolution of features with sub-millimetre dimensions.