Mengruo Wang
Back to Works

CURRENT RESEARCH / ARTIST BOOK

Three States of Order

Beijing Order / Dragon-scale Binding

2026 / 15 × 110 cm

An artist book prototype series translating my bodily experience of Beijing’s historical order into three folded states: Placed, Remained, and Opened.

Three dragon-scale binding books shown fully opened in sequence.
Three volumes: A / Placed, B / Remained, C / Opened.

Project

Beijing Order

This project begins with my observation of Beijing as a city structured by spatial, historical, and institutional order. Instead of documenting the city directly, the work reorganises this experience through three historical image systems: The Ten Thousand Longevity Celebration, Rivers and Mountains Stretching for Thousands of Miles, and Wondrous Views of Xiao and Xiang.

The dragon-scale binding is used as a reading mechanism. Through folding, overlap, concealment, and partial visibility, continuous images are transformed into layered structures that must be entered, handled, and reassembled through time.

Year
2026
Size
15 × 110 cm
Medium
Dragon-scale binding, printed paper, hand-assembled prototype
Structure
Three volumes / Placed · Remained · Opened
Category
Current Research / Artist Book

01

Structure Overview

Overall and detail views of the three dragon-scale binding books.
Three historical image systems reorganised through one dragon-scale binding structure.

02

Three Volumes

SYSTEM A

Placed

Source image: The Ten Thousand Longevity Celebration

Imperial order as ritual, hierarchy, and spatial arrangement.

A / Placed volume shown fully opened.
Based on The Ten Thousand Longevity Celebration, this volume examines how bodies, architecture, and procession are organised into a visible system of power.
Close-up of the A / Placed folded image sequence.
Image fragments and folded sequence.
Close-up of the A / Placed dragon-scale binding structure.
Binding, edge, and layered structure.

SYSTEM B

Remained

Source image: Rivers and Mountains Stretching for Thousands of Miles

Order as remainder, sediment, and spatial continuity.

B / Remained volume shown fully opened.
Based on the mountain section of Rivers and Mountains Stretching for Thousands of Miles, this volume treats landscape as a structure of traces, surfaces, and geological persistence.
Hands holding and opening the B / Remained volume.
Reading as handling and bodily movement.
Angled view of the B / Remained layered folded structure.
Layering rhythm and spatial depth.

SYSTEM C

Opened

Source image / prototype: Handmade dragon-scale prototype

Order as perceptual opening, interval, and temporal reading.

C / Opened volume shown fully opened.
Developed through a handmade dragon-scale prototype, this volume turns the act of reading into a bodily process of unfolding, touching, and reassembling images through time.
Angled view of the C / Opened volume and continuous landscape image.
Spatial reading through a continuous folded image.

03

Reading as Structure

The work is not a travel record of Beijing, nor a redesign of historical painting. It is a material study of how historical order can be folded, retained, and opened again through the body of the reader.