Flora of formosa

In this series, the “Ink Butterflies” respond to the 1975 poem Days of Lingering Rain by Chou Meng-tieh. The paper is dyed using the logwood plant dyes, integrated into the traditional papermaking process so that, when lifted from the water, it already bears the delicate deckled edges of handmade paper and a profound depth of black. The words upon the butterflies’ wings are sourced from brittle, timeworn books of the 20th century, reviving the beauty of the letterpress printing era. The charred volumes used in the work once came from Songlin Bookstore on Guling Street—mentioned in the poem itself—which, after surviving a fire, was reborn as a poignant record of time and place.