This project involved creating a poetic book as a tribute to my adoption. The concept explores how childhood memories gradually become vaporous and intangible over time, while we desperately attempt to preserve them despite the natural fading of memory.

The book is rooted in the idea that we all live in parallel worlds, where every decision opens the way to an infinite number of possibilities. The work was therefore created for the child from another world who would have lived my life had I not been adopted. It recounts my memories through illustrations engraved onto Japanese paper. In each illustration, my silhouette has been laser-cut out, reinforcing the idea that any child could have taken my place and lived these same memories.

At the centre of the book, a letter is addressed to this child, putting the illustrations into words. The text is structured in the same way memories accumulate in our minds: sometimes chronologically, sometimes in fragments, and occasionally without any apparent connection. As the pages progress, the lower portions of the characters gradually disappear. The letters therefore become increasingly incomplete and difficult to read, evoking the way memories fade and become harder to retrieve over time.

A long sentence also runs continuously from the beginning to the end of the book, creating a thread that connects the pages together.

The materials were chosen with the same intention of honouring my Asian roots while evoking the vaporous and fragile nature of memory. The selected paper is thin and delicate; the illustrations and text are engraved into its surface, reinforcing the fragility of the object. A Japanese binding was chosen for the same reasons. Finally, the book’s packaging recalls that of a shipped parcel, as if the book were being sent to another universe.