For my midterm project (Artist Book) I decided to show the samurai sword as a visual icon to represent the changes in its form since its inception. How the curvature of the blade changed over time as technology and methods improved creating better, stronger blades. To display this I made a brochure style tryptic of 3 swords from different eras in two dimensional form carving them out of balsa wood and finishing with silver trim for realism. I also wanted to give the effect of aging and authenticity to the piece so I chose to use dark Brazilian banana paper as the backdrop for the wood. I finished the piece with Japanese writing on the font it means “Samurai or Bushi (the way of the warrior)” The tops of the inside panels create the saying nuitara saigo – “drawing the sword because this is the end” meaning “as if there were no tomorrow. The bottom of the panels depict the century in which the style of sword represented above is from, in this case from left to right the 8th, 13th and 19th centuries. Below are the photographic images of the piece.
