Book of Hours

Consisting of 24 leaves, Book of hours is a unique photo book which documents the Hoya tarikuensis across the duration of a day as the plant experiences nyctinasty, or botanical circadian movement. Produced by direct thermal printing, the images will undergo natural processes of fading over time - cellulose oxidation that results from the ultraviolet rays in sunlight, the moisture in the air, and the oils from the readers’ own fingers.

As such, Book of hours is as much book as clock, presenting multiple ways of encoding time. When, someday, the image finally disappears, the slow transfer of image from page to memory would be complete.

Book of Hours
Loh Xiang Yun, 2023

160 mm × 85 mm, full telescope box with thumb cuts, circular die cut with paper inserts and thermal label;
140 mm × 68 mm, 24pp swatch book, colophon paper slip adhered to the wrapping.
Binding: Leaves held together with book screw
Material: 480 gsm Spectrum Black (box); thermal paper, 120 gsm Maple Snow, 290 gsm Sirio 80 Nero, 250 gsm Strike! Sunny Gold (leaves);18 gsm Fabiano Black Tissue Paper (wrapping)
Direct thermal printing, Inkjet printing

First edition of 24

ISBN 978-981-18-8032-2

Special edition for Indiecon 2023 'Book as Space'