I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library. (Jorge Luis Borges) 

In my case, sometimes it may be a kind of hell or purgatory. See: The Lust/Murder Book. I learned to make one-

of-a-kind artists’ books in New York in 1992 while on sabbatical from my school in Tokyo. At Pratt Institute and

The Center for Book Arts, I learned how to bind covers, sew the pages together, and assemble craftsman-like

book forms. But I immediately started to personalize the process by using found forms for the covers like thick

19th century cardboard magazine covers, notebooks and portfolios, accordion photo albums from the 30s, or

by creating my own unique cover forms. Later I boxed some books’ pages to create unbound books, so that

each page could possibly be displayed separately in an exhibit. Using an unlimited variety of simple, ordinary

materials as well as fine hand-made papers or sections cut from my early paintings, I want to create books as

sumptuous as the books that have inspired me: Armenian and Ethiopian illustrated Bibles, French books of the 

hours, medieval illuminated manuscripts, and Islamic albums of calligraphy and painted miniatures.