| Title | Species |
| Artist / Creator | Kyoko Matsunaga |
| Artist's Nationality | Japanese |
| Place of Publication | San Francisco, CA |
| Publication Date | 2011 |
| Process / Technique | Digital ink jet printing and letterpress. |
| Number of Images | 35 photos of people on loose pages. 8 paintings by the artist reproduced on wrappers. |
| Image Process | Photography, painting. |
| Structure / Binding | Pages are iron-on transfer papers plus ink jet printing and letterpress. Folded wrappers are inkjet printed on translucent paper and waxed. Both are contained in a portfolio-style case with ribbon closure. |
| Paper Stock | Mitsumata paper; Japanese paper |
| Number of Pages | 35 loose pages presented in 8 folded wrappers. |
| Dimensions (WxHxD) | 10.6 x 8.7 x .8 inches; 270 x 220 x 20 mm |
| Edition Size | Edition of 20 |
| Box / Wrapper | Presented in a portfolio-style case with ribbon closure. |
| Signed & Numbered | Yes |
This pictorial book reveals people as new species of vegetables. It is said that when you eat something, like a plant, it becomes a part of you. In return, you become a part of the plant. These portraits were taken on 11/22/2009, where a party was held featuring special vegetable dishes. As each guest consumed the food, their photograph was taken to m ark the event. Each person was then identified with a scientific name as a new version of the vegetable. The images were then collected and assembled into book format.
Artist Bio
Kyoko Matsunaga (b. 1981 Hyogo, Japan) is a mixed media and book artist. She graduated from Kyoto Seika University with a BFA in Printmaking. After graduation, she moved to Tokyo and studied with a bookbinder, Yo Yamazaki, to shape her book art more unerringly. Her work has been exhibited in Japan and abroad. Kyoko has lived in the Bay Area since 2010. Artist Statement The main expressive mediums of Kyoko Matsunaga are mixed media work and book arts, which combine uniquely processed images with words or other digital information. Kyoko was born and brought up in Japan where the East and the West live in harmony. She embraces a desire to clearly understand the western world, but at the same time, she needs amorphous white areas in her mind. As white is a traditional and symbolic color in Japan, it suggests nothingness, death, rebirth, innocence or awe. She feels that white connects the real world to her dream and beyond. Kyoko's images are created by selectively painting white over parts of photographs, snapshots of daily life, or images pulled from the Internet. In many cases, she uses semitransparent materials such as Japanese paper, drying oil, or beeswax to create a sense of distance from reality. These creations have been inspired by the scenery of her dreams. Traces of light captured by the camera or our human eyes physically prove the existence of things. On the other hand, these altered images, covered by a misty white color, show how Kyoko recognizes and determines the world.