Christina painted these maps on sheets of dried “sea lettuce,” members of the genus Ulva, a group of green macroalgae found in many parts of the world. All of the maps in this book were created from a single piece of Ulva perhaps 150 square feet in size, the largest she has ever found.
These beautiful polychrome woodblock prints are Meiji era copies (ca. 1900) of original designs (ca. 1771) by Itō Jakuchū (伊藤 若冲, 2 March 1716 – 27 October 1800), a Japanese painter of the mid-Edo period notable for his striking modern aesthetic.
