Philadelphia-based artist Xue’er Gao centers her practice on book arts and the traditional craft of papermaking. Gao regards paper as a metaphor for transformation. Her handmade sheets function as more than just utilitarian surfaces for recording text. She manipulates raw paper pulp to create forms that push the boundaries of the medium.

For her exhibition at Philadelphia International Airport, Gao explores the space between tradition and experimentation. A Codex (an ancient book form in which multiple pages are folded and bound along a single spine) is the precursor to the modern book that we know today. It became prominent during the Roman Empire and replaced the scroll as the primary medium for written texts because it allowed for easier navigation since the pages could be turned rather than unrolled. Gao deconstructs and reconfigures the codex format to explore how books can shift from linear narrative tools to sculptural forms, spatial objects, or even extensions of the body. Through the process of soaking, stretching, drying, stitching, and layering paper fibers, she investigates the intrinsic qualities of the material to test the boundaries of texture, fragility, and resilience.

Gao regards her process as the belief of the self as a “living book”, a continuously folded, inked, and re-bound entity shaped by place, time, and perception. She writes, “My practice is deeply personal and simultaneously collective. It reflects my desire to honor disappearing traditions, to question modes of permanence, and to invite viewers to read not only with their eyes, but with their hands and breath.”

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