© Ryoko Adachi, artist book “Jack and the Beanstalk”

I felt transported to another world at the Book Becoming Art exhibition at the SVMA (Sonoma Valley Museum of Art) last year, which showcased contemporary artist books inspired by Japanese aesthetics. One of the works that captivated me was Jack and the Beanstalk by Ryoko Adachi. I spent hours immersed in it, fascinated by its uniqueness and by the beautiful, seamless way she translated scientific phenomena into visual and tactile experience.

Drawing inspiration from nature and the interactions of microorganisms, her books become pure poetry of art, science and perception. Ryoko’s work left a deep impression on me and became a source of inspiration. I was fortunate to experience it again at CODEX this year.

I’m delighted to present an interview with Ryoko, where she reflects on her latest books for the Lenscratch audience.

© Ryoko Adachi, artist book, “Language of shape”

Tell us about your growing up and early influences. Coming from a background in graphic design, what led you to choose artist book as a form of expression?

I grew up in Japan during the period of rapid economic growth, and our home in Tokyo was overflowing with my parents’ books. On sleepless nights, I would lie in my futon and gaze at the bookshelf, tracing the spines from one end to the other with my eyes. I had always been far more interested in picture books and manga than in books filled only with text.

At art university, I was asked not so much “how to draw,” but rather “how to perceive the world.” I spent long periods observing unstable phenomena such as crystal growth and chemical reactions, creating spatial installations using these processes.

After graduating, I worked in graphic design while continuing to search for my own form of expression. As digital media became increasingly dominant, I became newly aware of the material presence of paper and printed matter, and naturally found myself returning to printed books. Opening a book felt as though space itself were unfolding. Gradually, I began to wonder whether the themes I had explored through spatial works could be carried into the form of the book.

Soon after I began making books, I encountered an exhibition in Tokyo by the German artist book collective “13+.” I was deeply drawn to the way form, typography, printing, materials, and concept converged into a single structure. Later, I moved to Germany and studied under Ulrike Stoltz, one of the participating artists. Encountering artists and artist books from around the world there expanded the way I thought about books.

© Ryoko Adachi, artist book, “Language of shape”

© Ryoko Adachi, artist book, “Language of shape”

Many of your books draw inspiration from nature, particularly the interactions of microorganisms influencing each other. Can you speak about the underlying philosophy that informs and inspires your practice of book art?

Our bodies coexist with countless microorganisms. Once I begin thinking of myself as living in symbiosis with billions of other beings, I begin to wonder where the boundary between “self” and “other” truly lies. My own outline gradually becomes ambiguous. Perhaps the same could be said of the particles that compose us as well.

I think of myself less as someone who expresses, and more as an observer. Before trying to express anything, I want to listen carefully to the behavior of the world itself.

Part of the background to these ideas comes from my experience observing crystal growth as a student. While observing crystals over long periods of time, there came a moment when I realized that my body and the crystals were governed by the same underlying principles. It felt as though the boundary between us had dissolved, revealing a strange continuity. This experience became an important starting point for my work. It made me realize what I am fundamentally connected to.

© Ryoko Adachi, artist book, “Language of shape”

© Ryoko Adachi, artist book, “Language of shape”

I am fascinated by the way you transform natural and scientific phenomena into visual and tactile forms, particularly how these ideas are translated aesthetically into the book structures. Could you tell us about your Language of Shape book? What initially sparked this series, and how did those emotions evolve into the conceptual and structural form of the book?

Before creating Language of Shape, I made a work titled Song of Birds. In that book, tree branches were treated almost like calligraphic brushstrokes, visualizing birdsong and calls. At the time, I was thinking about how humans are said to be the only beings with “language,” and wondering whether things that cannot become language fail to reach others — or whether they are not respected unless they can be verbalized. Eventually, my attention turned toward the “something” emitted even by nonliving things, leading me back to my longstanding fascination with observing crystals.

For Language of Shape, images of crystals, cave symbols, silver, and outer space drifted through my mind for a long time. Around the same period, the COVID-19 pandemic began, and the anxieties and sensations of that time naturally became intertwined with the work as well. I did not try to organize these elements immediately; instead, I waited for the images to ferment. Then, at a certain moment, they suddenly connected and began to take shape as a single structure.

At the same time, I was also thinking about paper, printing, and bookbinding methods. While searching for black paper, I discovered a particular vertical proportion that led naturally to a structure unfolding like a triptych. Sometimes the material itself determines the shape of the book.

This work also required me to write poetry myself, because existing language did not resonate sufficiently with the work. Behind this was my admiration for Torahiko Terada and Ukichiro Nakaya. They observed natural phenomena not simply as results, but as processes in the midst of emerging.

© Ryoko Adachi, ongoing series of artist book, “Sinn(e) Sammeln series”

Ryoko Adachi’s ongoing series of artist book, “Sinn(e) Sammeln series”. Photo credit © Gallery SAOH & TOMOS

© Ryoko Adachi, artist book “Song of birds”

© Ryoko Adachi, artist book “Song of birds”

© Ryoko Adachi, artist book “Song of birds”

© Ryoko Adachi, artist book “Song of birds”

Tell us about Vowel Bugs. This is a very timely rendition of The Insect Play – into the realm of language. How long was the research phase before the gradual convergence of the final form? Tell us about the techniques and materials you used for this book.

I worked on the project for about two years. It began almost as a playful attempt to generate images from existing texts. Gradually, this transformed into the idea of “Vowel Bugs,” insects that consume vowels.

Through this playful process, the meaning of the text gradually became illegible. Over time, my interest shifted toward the process through which meaning itself collapses. In some way, this also overlapped with my experiences working in fields and my fascination with the decomposition of organic matter in soil. Eventually, these concerns became intertwined with the unstable atmosphere of the world itself, which led me to use Karel Čapek’s satirical text.

The drawings were digitally made over strings of OCR font characters. Insect-like traces are drawn across the strict grid formed by monospaced letters. I was interested in how those traces would interfere with one another through overlapping layers of print.

For the printing process, I layered inkjet printing with silkscreen, using glossy and fluorescent pigments to create a multilayered surface. Imagining something like a musical score or a script, I designed the book with the structure kept as simple as possible, and hand-bound the entire work myself.
Yet despite all these transformations, the work ultimately began from a small act of play with letters and images.

Ryoko Adachi’s artist book “Vowel bugs”, Photo credit © Gallery SAOH & TOMOS

Ryoko Adachi’s artist book “Vowel bugs”, Photo credit © Gallery SAOH & TOMOS

© Ryoko Adachi, artist book “Vowel bugs”

© Ryoko Adachi, artist book “Vowel bugs”

© Ryoko Adachi, artist book “Vowel bugs”

What are you working on now? What are you reading lately?

Recently, I have been photographing rivers while observing their flow. What appears on the water’s surface is not a fixed form, but shifting images of reflections, glimmers of light, colors, and currents that continuously emerge and disappear through subtle changes in conditions. Even in the same place, the river reveals a different appearance each time I look at it. It feels almost ghost like, and I am drawn to that instability. Whether these observations will eventually lead to a new work, I still do not know.

Among the books I have read recently, the ones that left the strongest impression on me both explored states that resist being fixed or settled. One discussed the concept of the “middle voice,” while the other examined the dialogical practice known as “Open Dialogue.” What they shared was an emphasis on remaining engaged within unstable conditions, rather than rushing toward conclusions.

In some way, this also feels connected to the image of the river. And perhaps it relates as well to the experience of viewing artist books. Lately, I have become interested in creating spaces where each viewer’s own voice and sensations can naturally become part of the experience itself.

Artist Books by  Ryoko Adachi

Sinn(e) Sammeln series (since 2003)
An ongoing series of books based on plant motifs, begun in 2003. The plants used in the works are collected from everyday surroundings. Many of the books are made from printed pages soaked in beeswax. As the paper takes on a translucent quality, the living traces of plants appear to be sealed within the structure of the book itself.

Jack and the Beanstalk
A book based on the British folk tale Jack and the Beanstalk. The image of genetically modified crops spreading throughout the world is layered metaphorically onto a giant beanstalk reaching toward the sky. The book is constructed from two sheets of paper (30 cm × 7 m) folded in alternating directions, forming a structure reminiscent of a genetic helix. Through this structure, the thin Japanese paper pages appear layered and visually complex.

Song of birds
Created from branches collected during walks while listening to birdsong. Arranged on paper, the branches came to resemble signs or calligraphic forms that could not be read, yet seemed to contain a voice. The work was developed alongside readings on theories suggesting that the origins of language may once have been as musical as birdsong. The piece exists in two versions: a codex edition and a sheet edition.

Language of shape
Inspired by the words of physicist Ukichiro Nakaya, who wrote that “snow can be regarded as letters sent from the sky.” The work consists of two booklets and a single sheet. In the first booklet, photographs of crystallized sodium sulfate are arranged as letter-like forms and printed in silver ink. The tri-fold pages unfold vertically to a total length of 90 cm, accompanied by a text by the artist quoting Nakaya’s words.
The second booklet combines excerpts from Nakaya’s writings on polar landscapes with close-up photographs of yogurt taken by the artist. Through the juxtaposition of microscopic and expansive imagery, the work suggests unexpected echoes between different forms and scales in nature.

Vowel bugs
Insects that appear in a shared community garden may seem like pests at first glance, yet they often act in harmony with the garden as a whole—trimming what has grown too much, and revealing the condition of the plants. Inspired by such observations, this book imagines vowel-eating insects that consume the vowels within a text. The source text is Act III of And So Ad Infinitum (The Life of the Insects) by Karel Čapek and Josef Čapek, which depicts the war of the ants. The work proposes a literary performance: capturing insects and releasing them into sites of conflict around the world.

Ryoko Adachi is a book artist based in Tokyo. After creating installations incorporating natural phenomena, she developed a deep interest in the sense of time inherent in books as a medium and in the physical experience of reading, and now primarily creates artist books.

Using images derived from photography, she constructs her works through a combination of diverse techniques, including digital printing, letterpress, lithography, and silkscreen. Oscillating between imagination and scientific sensibility, her works are presented at book fairs and other venues, as well as in solo exhibitions through installation-style arrangements that place books within exhibition spaces. Her works are held in numerous public collections.

Follow Ryoko Adachi:

website: https://ada-library.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryoko_ada/