One and Three Books is the outcome of an ongoing research/pedagogical project led by my tutor Danne Ojeda at the School of Art Design and Media, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore while I was on an exchange. Inspired by the artwork One and Three Chairs (1965) by Joseph Kosuth, it analyses the relationship between the book as a concept, the book as a process (its making-off), and the book as an object of communication.

My inspiration of what is a book was from an old Chinese saying: “read ten thousand books and travel ten thousand miles”. “Reading ten thousand books” is like seeing knowledge and ability through a window, but if you want to really get the knowledge and ability, that is where you have to go out and “ travel ten thousand miles”. 

My book content is built on Chinese foot binding in the past. The direct reason to advocate food-binding in the past was because it stopped the women from going out to see outside world by restricting their activities, hence to imprison women’s life and thinking. My book concept is to satirize this feudal thinking and to make a striking contrast with the Chinese saying “read ten thousand books and walk ten thousand miles”.

The shoe box and the cloth strips wrapped on foot-binding shoe cards (8 pieces) are considered as a way of emancipation. By opening the shoe box and unwrapping the cloth strips represent to release people’s thoughts and encourage them to go out to see outside world.