A performer dressed as the Hindu Godess Kali takes part in a religious procession on the occasion of the Hindu festival of “Maha Shivaratri” in Pushkar on March 8, 2024. (Photo by Himanshu Sharma/AFP Photo)

People will spout about impermanence of digital records, but books are really fragile, too. Alexis Arnold from San Francisco wanted to illustrate that with her project The Crystallized Book: collecting books and growing Borax crystals on them. Books range from literature classics to magazines, and there’s even a mysterious and arcane tome called “Linux: The Complete Manual”.

A man checks the temperature of a devotee as a precaution against the coronavirus as she arrives to offer prayers at an ancient temple of Hindu goddess Kali in Jammu, India, Tuesday, August 18, 2020. (Photo by Channi Anand/AP Photo)

A man dressed as Pothuraju, a mythical character, performs rituals during the Bonalu festival in Hyderabad, India, Thursday, June 30, 2022. Bonalu is a month-long Hindu folk festival of the Telangana region dedicated to Kali, the Hindu goddess of destruction. (Photo by Mahesh Kumar A./AP Photo)

A reveller plays with tomato pulp during the annual Tomatina festival in Bunol, near Valencia, Spain on August 29, 2018. As every year on the last Wednesday of August, thousands of people visit the small village of Bunol to attend the Tomatina, a battle in which tons of ripe tomatoes are used as weapons. This year, a total of 145 tons of ripe tomatoes will be thrown between more than 22,000 participants. (Photo by Heino Kalis/Reuters)

An Indian artist performs with fire during a procession as part of “Bonalu” festival in Hyderabad, India, Monday, Aug.10, 2015. Bonalu is a month long Hindu folk festival of India's Telangana region dedicated to Kali, the Hindu goddess of destruction. (Photo by Mahesh Kumar A./AP Photo)

Students with faces painted as Hindu goddess Kali, take part in a cultural event ahead of the Janmashtami festival, or the birth anniversary of Hindu Lord Krishna, inside a college in Mumbai, India on September 4, 2023. (Photo by Francis Mascarenhas/Reuters)

Kumari Samita Bajracharya sits in front of devotees offers during a special puja at Kumari Ghar in Patan, Nepal, 09 April 2011. It is believed that worshipping Kumari and receiving tika from her reduces illness and avoid problems. Kumari, or Kumari Devi, is a “living goddess”. The word literally means virgin in Nepali. The Living Goddesses are young pre-pubescent girls that are considered to be incarnations of the Hindu Goddess of Power, Kali. The Kumari retires when she reaches puberty. (Photo by Narendra Shrestha/EPA)