The Woman Who Loved Love (Koshoku ichidai onna); by Ihara Saikaku (1642-1693) in 6 volumes 

Curator: This is Ihara Saikaku's "The Woman Who Loved Love," a six-volume work illustrated by Yoshida Hanbei. Editor: There's a quiet melancholy about the worn covers. The pale blue whispers of age and use. Curator: Indeed. Consider the materials: paper, binding threads, the brocade box, all signifying a careful crafting and intended consumption. Editor: The script itself is symbolic. The arrangement of characters, the weight of ink, carries cultural memory specific to this text's place in the culture of the Edo period. Curator: It provokes questions about the story's production: the papermakers, the block carvers, the printers. Their labor is embedded in this object. Editor: The title itself, "The Woman Who Loved Love," hints at larger archetypes of female desire and transgression represented through the images. Curator: Seeing the physical labor and materials alongside the themes of love opens our minds to complex networks of production and desire. Editor: Yes, it's a story told not just in words, but in the very texture and visual weight of the object. The images themselves are a language.