In her many trips to Asia, Field has observed, time and again, the use of handmade paper over thresholds. Field asserts that if ritual creates a bridge to the spirit world, then there must be a symbolic meaning behind the shared practice of placing handmade paper over doorways. Shintoism and Buddhism have an interactive relationship to the more-than-human world and its cycles. The growing, harvesting, and processing of plant fiber span seasonal time and the fiber acts together with all of the elements resulting in handmade paper as an expression of that interaction. Field suggests that these sacred protectors over doorways function as a symbol of that interrelationship of man, nature, and spirit. In documenting this phenomenon, the book is packed with color photographs of talismans that commonly occur in simple settings in a natural environment. How many Westerners could make these connections? I believe that Field was able to create this book after her countless trips over many years and because of the unique way she "sees." This is Dorothy Field's magnum opus, which incorporates her lifetime perspective as a scholar, spiritual person, hand papermaker, poet, and visual artist. This passage from the book gives insight into the author's faith and sheds light on why "paradox" is part of the book's title: "The abyss that separates us from the world of spirit may not be as unbridgeable as we imagine. As people have always done, we go to wild places to be closer to ourselves and the gods, to mountaintops misted in fog, to wild Paper and Threshold reviewed by amanda degener paper and threshold: the paradox of spiritual connection in asian cultures Dorothy Field. Ann Arbor, MI: The Legacy Press, 2007. 108 pages, 9 ¾ x 11 ¾ x ¾ inches (hardcover), 207 color photographs. Includes a foreword by Jane M. Farmer, glossary, and bibliography. $45. Available through The Legacy Press, www .thelegacypress.com; the book is also available in sheets. A very large shimenawa (rice-straw rope) with multiple gohei (folded pure white paper) at the Josan Inari Shrine in Matsue, Japan. All photos courtesy of The Legacy Press. Monk holding a paper prayer at a monastery on an island in Inle Lake in Burma. Paper prayers on a small Buddhist stupa in the middle of a crowded street in an old neighborhood in Kathmandu. rivers or the ocean shore. Like Tibetans throwing squares of paper prayers to the gods, it is as if we throw ourselves to the gods. What we search for is all around us, though we keep ourselves fogged and blinded much of the time. Then the clouds part and for a moment, sometimes a long moment, we can see the earth stretched before us, feel ourselves at the synapse that joins and severs our connection to mystery. How do we live with integrity, knowing that this earth where we stand is holy ground, and it is the only place to be? In our moments of vision and understanding, our lostness is found. Each time we cross our thresholds, if we remember to wake up, we open ourselves to mystery, gratitude, and awe." In her enlightening introduction, the renowned curator Jane Farmer gives an overview of Asia's paper history by giving many examples of how each specific culture developed its own particular papers. She writes about the Tibetan block-printed paper flags, the pre-paper tapa of South Pacific Islanders, and the spirit money papers of the Chinese. Both the Chinese and Japanese burn paper as part of the purification ritual and/or to report back to the spirit world. Japanese paper culture is still intact so it is well represented in the book. Farmer traces the use of gohei or folded pure white paper, attached to sticks or hung from a ricestraw rope (shimenawa), back to a sacred rite performed by the native Ainu people who selected specific carved saplings to appeal to certain spirits. Farmer believes that American artists, with their constantly evolving and mixed cultural background, are in a unique position to "choose among, yet honor, traditions…\[and inspire\] artists worldwide to incorporate their own cultural and spiritual paper traditions into their creations." Both Field and Farmer challenge us to revive the spiritual role of paper in all cultures, in order to help us reconnect with natural resources, ritual, and ceremony. This book will inspire artists who use paper, scholars of Asian culture, educators, creators of handmade paper, and writers who consider metaphor. The color photographs with detailed captions will gratify both those who browse and those who thoroughly read. Why did this book win a bronze medal from the 2008 Independent Publisher Book Awards in the category of Essay/ Creative Non-Fiction? Because the judges savored this handsomely designed interdisciplinary creation. Paper and Threshold may assist you to go through a figurative doorway towards your own spiritual relationship with handmade paper. Masked dancer at a ceremonial performance at Ise Shrine, the most sacred Shinto shrine in Japan, thanking the gods for the first rice of the fall and sharing the harvest with them. The boundaries of the stage are marked by a shimenawa (rice-straw rope), and there are numerous gohei (folded pure white paper) on the altar. Omikuji (fortune papers) tied onto cedar branches at a Buddhist temple in Hitachi-Ota, Japan. Woman throwing spirit money into a fire burning constantly in an oil drum in front of the Wong Tai Sin Temple in Hong Kong.