Jacqueline Rush Lee’s lifelong love of books has fueled her inspiration as a fine artist. Books not only serve as the medium for her work, but the art she creates with them leads both her audience and herself to explore themes of transformation.

"I’m interested in scrambling the formal arrangement of books to create a new narrative," says Lee, who petrifies books in the kiln, and stitches, folds and rolls pages to create sculptural pieces.

"I like taking something that’s symbolic to the culture and representing it in a new way."

Through Oct. 15, the international artist is showing her work alongside Casey Neumann and Madeleine Soder in "Tactile Repeat" at The Contemporary Museum at First Hawaiian Center. The trio have produced pieces that use "the repetitive and intimate action of hand-stitching as a way to connect with and transform their materials," says the exhibit brochure.

Swedish-born Soder explores materials that are "barely there, but still have the ability to hold space" through works formed from crocheting, hand-stitching and printed organza.

Neumann, who worked as a printer at HuiPress on Maui, creates pieces intended to relay a sensation similar to a blink or pulse. The artist is interested in the momentary awareness of a fleeting thought and attempts to capture that sensibility.

LEE WAS BORN in Northern Ireland and moved to Hawaii in 1993. She earned a master of fine arts degree in 2000 from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Lee says she enjoyed books as a young child and even wrote and illustrated her own stories.

"Books were intimate objects for me," she says.

Those deep ties continue today, and Lee feels a deep responsibility to the books she collects to make her art.

"I believe there’s mana in these books. There’s the spirit in them of the people who owned them, and I feel like they’ve been passed down. Now, it’s in my hands."

Lee usually pores through stacks at the Friends of the Kaneohe Library bookstore for her material. Her latest series employs small, flexible Asian books filled with Japanese, Chinese and Korean text.

"They’re pliable to work with and great for folding," says the artist.

The elegant pieces display lovely translucent pages filled with Asian text, and looped folds offer peeks at colorful illustrations. Long threads extend from stitchings to continue the lyrical line.

"A viewer must approach (these works) with their senses and intellect to create another story, encounter its physicality and reinterpret it," Lee says.