©2007, Purple Mountain Observatory, 6.25 x 5.75 x .75 inches, 300 lb. watercolor paper, acrylics, collage, prismacolor pencils. I was thinking of layers in the stars. We are part of the stars, maybe made from stardust. The stars are overhead, and on the other side of the earth, even during the day when we can’t see them, or in cities, where they are mostly invisible at night. In the book, the lines marking the constellations sometimes join to stars on the figures, as if they are part of the starry sky. From wikipedia: Purple Mountain Observatory, also known as Zijinshan Astronomical Observatory, is an astronomical observatory located on the Purple Mountain in Nanjing, China.

"On top there is an ample terrace surrounded" This book was originally inspired by a bit of found text in "The Comet is Coming" by Nigel Calder.

"surrounded by magnificent buildings of old with" I made the signatures by hinging together two pieces of 300 pound watercolor paper with some kind of tough oriental paper. You can see the slightly darker hinge in the center of the spread above. I wanted to be able to bind single signatures of heavy watercolor paper with a coptic stitch.

"with instruments both ancient and modern." I started this book in 1999 as a test for hinged pieces of stiff watercolor paper that could be sewn together with a Coptic stitch. When I left it I was very unhappy with some of the imagery and thought I wouldn't find a resolution. Of course now I can't remember how I envisioned the final book. Was there supposed to be a separate cover? Why are there an odd number of pages and no end papers in the back?

"Here some take their stand every night to" I repeated the last word of each phrase on the next page. It's a technique I vaguely remember reading was used in early books to aid the reader.

"to observe whatever may appear in the heavens, whether"

"whether meteoritic fires or"

"or comets, and" Now that I can bind these stiff pages as signature, I have decided I'm not crazy about the line through the center of the page where the thread goes from station to station. I like Keith Smith's Sewing Single Sheets techniques better.

"to report them in detail to the emperor."

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