The result is a multisensory reading experience that engages sight, smell, and touch, offering a whole new way of appreciating a book.

Years of reading and bookmaking have shaped Zhang's reflections on the essence of books. "To me, a book is an architectural space where poetic language resides," he explains. "Like architecture, it has spatial structure and a layered layout. Words flow through it like people fulfilling different functions within a building.

"A book is also a time-traveling spacecraft to understanding the past, imagining the future, and transcending geographic and cultural boundaries," Zhang says. "It's a black hole of possibility, capable of containing all things known and unknown. The concept of a book is infinitely inclusive."

Always an avid reader, Zhang believes the best reading experiences imitate face-to-face conversations. "The idea is to preserve as much of the original text and imagery as possible," he says, "so that reading becomes an intimate dialogue with the author, as if we're sharing afternoon tea."

This belief drew him to learning dragon-scale binding, a technique that perfectly fuses text and imagery into a seamless, flowing narrative.

Over the past decade, Zhang has created a handful of works using this method. His first dragon-scale book took two and a half years to complete; the second took four. For Zhang, each project must be unique in form and content. He refuses to repeat himself, no matter how time-consuming the process may be.

"I begin a new piece only if I've made some artistic progress. Otherwise, I'm just re-creating the past. That's a waste of time and energy."

Currently, he is working on a dragon-scale edition of Tao Te Ching, which has already taken six years. Zhang estimates it will take two more years to finish. "That may not even be my most time-consuming work," he notes. "The next one could take longer."

Contact the writer at liyingxue@chinadaily.com.cn