The Way to be Empty, 2: Artist’s Book as Buddhist Meditation

Sun Young Kang’s The Way to Be Empty, 2 is composed of 108 small boxes set within five larger boxes. Each small box represents a page in the artist’s book, and the character on each box is the text. The burned out figures on all 108 pages are renderings of the character 道 which has different meanings including “path” or “way”—each designed by a different stamp engraver or calligrapher. She has burned each character using incense to create a meditative atmosphere in her work. The incense creates emptiness on paper, and each image of emptiness creates the 108 different ways or paths in this book. Sun Young Kang, a native of Korea, received her MFA in Book Arts and Printmaking at The University of the Arts/Philadelphia in 2007. She creates book structures that embody her philosophy of Buddhism and often uses the number 108 which is significant in Buddhism.