Purified Fragrance Studio 1871 - 1933

Jian Guzhai carved this ink tablet, *Purified Fragrance Studio,* which now sits in the Met collection. Can you imagine him, hunched over this small thing, meticulously carving these mirrored dragons? I feel like I’m looking into the artist’s mind, at a world of symbolism, where dragons curl sinuously around columns of text. I wonder what it was like for Guzhai to slowly remove material, coaxing these creatures into being. The dragons seem to frame and guard the words, their bodies echoing the verticality of the script. It is a conversation between line and form, word and image. What I find striking is how this tiny object embodies an entire cosmology. Guzhai is not just carving dragons; he’s invoking their power. Thinking about other artists who work on a small scale, like Joseph Cornell, or Hilla Becher... This ink tablet reminds me that artists, across time, enter into a dialogue of images and ideas. It’s a reminder that even in the most rigid-seeming traditions, there is room for invention.