Pelagic inheritance (2022). Inkjet print and natural dyes on handmade papers, thread, paper thread, bark lace, woven paper, deconstructed paper dresses. 12.75 x 8 x 0.5” closed. One of a kind. Cynthia Sears Artists’ Books Collection.

Pelagic inheritance was made in Cleveland by Aimee Lee for Bionic Hearing Press using mostly handmade papers that are mostly hanji, silk thread, paper thread, bark lace, and remnants of years of studio work and teaching. The papers, lace, and woven thread were made, dyed, decorated, and manipulated with joomchi and textile techniques by Aimee.

The grave rubbing was taken with a crayon outside of Seoul and dyed with safflower petals at the studio of Cho Misook in Yangpyeong, Korea. The image of small shifu squares was taken by Velma Bolyard of Wake Robin in Canton, New York, of her own shifu, and printed by Aimee via paper lithography onto hanji shifu made by Asao Shimura in Poking, Philippines. The blue paper attached to persimmon coated hanji was printed by Yuko Kimura at Zygote Press in Cleveland. Text in Garamond on hanji by Aimee using an inkjet printer. All text, binding, dressmaking, and sewing by Aimee in memory of her female ancestors.

Pelagic inheritance

Trauma can and does replicate in body after body after body

One day my mother and her
mother were in a boat

to wash clothes

Before that, my father’s
grandmother birthed eight children,
of them, two daughters

One became the first lady of South Korea.

one piece of white clothing
fell into the water

my mother
reached for it

Her entire
trunk
submerged

We are woven together in
so many ways as to
become inextricably bound

though we make our way
as if we are completely independent,
unattached

My great aunt made paper before I did
Her picture framed at the papermaker’s booth

A mother pulled out her child
screaming, You could have drowned

my mother’s memory:
floating white gauze

then immediately afterwards,
a fear of water,
an inability to swim

We aren’t alone after all.

She forced us to swim, through swallowing water,
sinking to the bottom of the pool, vomiting before
we even arrived

I’m still scared underwater

But we can all swim now.

Tree by tree / accordion version (2025). Pen and suminagashi on paper. 3.9 x 4.1 x 0.25” closed, 24.9” wide open. One of a kind. Cynthia Sears Artists’ Books Collection.

Tree by tree / milkweed version (2025). Pen on handmade milkweed paper. 4.5 x 5.75 x 0.4” closed, 11.6” wide open. One of a kind.

Tree by tree / green version (2025). Pen on handmade yucca-cotton-abaca paper. 5.6 x 7.8 x 0.3” closed, 11.25” wide open. 8 leaves; one of a kind.

Tree by tree / board version 1 (2025). Pen, walnut dye, persimmon juice on board; silk thread. 5.4 x 5.4 x 0.4” closed, 10.9” wide open. Variable edition (1/2). Cynthia Sears Artists’ Books Collection.

Tree by tree / board version 2 (2025). Pen, walnut dye, persimmon juice on board; silk thread. 5.4 x 5.4 x 0.4” closed, 10.9” wide open. Variable edition (2/2).

To become familiar with one sliver of a beloved landscape, I went outside every day for over a week to draw the same black walnut tree at Oak Spring Garden Foundation in Virginia in February 2025. The weather shifted rapidly from warm spring sunny days to extreme wind that made it sound like pieces of the house would fly away to snow that shut down campus. The tree stayed constant, and even on days that were too cold or windy to stay out long, I was deeply compelled to visit and draw. Each of these books is unique but all of them were made in the same batch, sitting or standing with them in a pile, doing drawing after drawing. Combined with my personal sketchbook, I made at least six drawings a day of this tree, and the growing intimacy and ability to see is recorded clearly. What began as a daily task became a meditation and valuable relationship that defined my days arriving on the land and communing with it.

Versions of Tree by Tree available, each signed and each a one-of-a-kind in the series.