The title of the book Nicasti used is "Surgery: Its Principles & Practice." The front cover is opened with rows of nails on the outside front cover. The back cover has an attached wooden box containing a shattered plexiglas cylinder and gauge. An abstract plexiglas form is built into the fastened pages of the book. A small sculptural element, composed of a collaged wooden fragment with rows of nails, contains a partial index of the medical text. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.

This sculpture provides a visual/verbal vignette of the fragility of the first breath of life. -- Source of annotation: Marvin or Ruth Sackner.