This piece was selected for our 2026 Fore Edge Fair online artist book sale. If you're interested in keeping up with acquisitions opportunities through our Fore Edge initiative, sign up for the Fore Edge newsletter here.
If placing an online order is not possible for your organization, please send a purchase order to aschiferl@mnbookarts.org and we will hold your items and follow up with an invoice. We request payment within 30 days of receipt.
“What We Keep, What Keeps Us: Chinatown, Between Thresholds
An immersive urban scroll using dragon-scale binding to hold diasporic memory
Belonging is rarely a single “place.” It is a sequence of micro-crossings repeated until they become instinct: threshold after threshold, language after language, public role after private life.
This book treats Chinatown not as a backdrop, but as a living interface where those crossings accumulate into identity.
This project reads diaspora as something you move through. Chinatown is made of small crossings that repeat until they feel like home: street to shop, counter to kitchen, English to Chinese, public face to private life, old habit to new feed. The book focuses on what those crossings carry, offering not just a narrative line but a lived overlap where continuity and change share the same sidewalk. The challenge is how to show that overlap without turning it into nostalgia, spectacle, or a frozen “community portrait.” The dragon-scale binding lets memory behave as it does in life: partial, layered, revisited. Meaning emerges through the act of reading, through pacing, stacking, and comparison.
The binding produces controlled reveal and conceal, so the reader “walks” through the book by unfolding sequences rather than consuming a straight line. Readers can pause mid-cascade, stack moments, and compare layers side by side, creating a self-paced tour of shifting references and repeating thresholds. The interaction rewards rereading, not just viewing.” - Yumeng Li
22.5” x 6” x 1”, Dragon Scale Binding, 32 pages
A selection of limited-edition artist books exploring micro-systems of environment and memory, mapping diaspora, time, and entropy through layered, immersive formats.
*Consignment item. Not eligible for 10% membership discount. All consignment purchases are final and non-refundable once shipped.
This piece was selected for our 2026 Fore Edge Fair online artist book sale. If you're interested in keeping up with acquisitions opportunities through our Fore Edge initiative, sign up for the Fore Edge newsletter here.
If placing an online order is not possible for your organization, please send a purchase order to aschiferl@mnbookarts.org and we will hold your items and follow up with an invoice. We request payment within 30 days of receipt.
“What We Keep, What Keeps Us: Chinatown, Between Thresholds
An immersive urban scroll using dragon-scale binding to hold diasporic memory
Belonging is rarely a single “place.” It is a sequence of micro-crossings repeated until they become instinct: threshold after threshold, language after language, public role after private life.
This book treats Chinatown not as a backdrop, but as a living interface where those crossings accumulate into identity.
This project reads diaspora as something you move through. Chinatown is made of small crossings that repeat until they feel like home: street to shop, counter to kitchen, English to Chinese, public face to private life, old habit to new feed. The book focuses on what those crossings carry, offering not just a narrative line but a lived overlap where continuity and change share the same sidewalk. The challenge is how to show that overlap without turning it into nostalgia, spectacle, or a frozen “community portrait.” The dragon-scale binding lets memory behave as it does in life: partial, layered, revisited. Meaning emerges through the act of reading, through pacing, stacking, and comparison.
The binding produces controlled reveal and conceal, so the reader “walks” through the book by unfolding sequences rather than consuming a straight line. Readers can pause mid-cascade, stack moments, and compare layers side by side, creating a self-paced tour of shifting references and repeating thresholds. The interaction rewards rereading, not just viewing.” - Yumeng Li
22.5” x 6” x 1”, Dragon Scale Binding, 32 pages
A selection of limited-edition artist books exploring micro-systems of environment and memory, mapping diaspora, time, and entropy through layered, immersive formats.
*Consignment item. Not eligible for 10% membership discount. All consignment purchases are final and non-refundable once shipped.
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