Oracle, as a fan, is a fashion accessory meant to regulate bodily and ambient temperature, as well as an interactive game and a book-like object. Identifying itself as a “book,” it persuasively comprises critical elements of one. It is a folded composite object based on paper, combines word and image in its representational system, uses the print medium, stores multiple pieces of information in one compact space, and is held in the hand, close to the body. It is “bound” on one end. In order to exploit its full function, one has to “open” it. The paper portion of the fan on which words and images are presented is called a “leaf,” and has a recto and verso side. The two sides of this particular fan are interdependent and require a turn of its leaf to reveal their shared meaning.
The element on which the game pivots is the wheel depicted on the recto. Numbers correspond to such questions as “Whether the Dream be true” or “Whether one is to get Riches.” The fan owner’s companion, keeping the number of the question in mind, pricks with a pin one of the numbers on the wheel. This number in turn corresponds with one of the deities–Jupiter, Juno, Apollo, Diana, Mars, Venus, Bacchus, Ceres, Mercury, and Minerva–residing in individual columns on the verso side of the fan. Within each column, a numbered answer for each numbered question is provided. Through the play of chance and fortune, different story lines unfold for a querent, with the outcome of her story revealed with the turn of a hand-held printed object.