Appropriating two classic hand depictions as markers to Eastern and Western philosophical positioning, this work diagonally opposes a Raphael image of Plato’s hand with finger pointing up toward the heavens, against a classic portrayal of Buddha’s hand pointing downward towards the earth.The hands are literally physically connected by a plastic water tube that joins in the middle by an open, blank paged book jutting out from the wall. A symbol of knowledge and history, the book’s middle ages have been hollowed out and inside are two glass Petri dishes which the plastic tubes run into. Underneath each dish are two phrases, “Can’t Reach Up Above”, and “Nothing Down Below”, alluding to Buddhist precepts that life is empty and there is nothing beyond.