Repatriated, a phantom and a dream
Ink on washi paper accordion handbound with fabric
15x10.75"
2025
The world's earliest dated printed book is a Chinese copy of the Diamond Sutra, a sacred Mahayana text made in 868 CE and kept in the Mogao Library Cave near Dunhuang, an outpost on the Silk Road. The book is currently held at the British Library, after archeologist Sir Aurel Stein smuggled away thousands of manuscripts in 1907.
This is my reimagined Diamond Sutra, using modern printing and ink calligraphy on a handmade book, with fragile pages unfolding as unruly as cultures which can never be owned:
"So you should view this fleeting world—
A star at dawn, a bubble in a stream,
A flash of lightning in a summer cloud,
A flickering lamp, a phantom, and a dream."
