Paper technology originated in China some two millennia ago, from where it spread east, to Korea and Japan, and west, along the Silk Road, to Central Asia, eventually reaching Europe in the 13th century. As the technology propagated, paper effected profound changes in each society it touched, becoming one of the most important of all cultural media, a status that it retains to the present.
Paper accrues value as religious and symbolic markings are added to its surface; fortune papers transport messages to the gods, paper is given the value of money in the form of banknotes, and the dream of flying was first realised in hot-air balloons made of paper. Paper can even be employed as architectural elements, as textiles for garments, and as a medium for artistic expression. In one or many of these manifestations, paper effects the lives of all on earth today.
In this cultural history of paper, acclaimed paper artist Therese Weber travels to the few remaining places where traditional methods of papermaking have been preserved. Commencing there Weber takes the reader on a fascinating and colourful journey of discovery of a commodity that many may take for granted, but few fully understand.