• In world traditions, a book has always been a metaphor for life.
• Each page is a day of one’s life.
• Pages turned represent the past. Pages yet to be read are the future.

We see a place bookmarked and guess this must be the day the man met the woman. The symbolism of the keyhole inscribed with the title Letter of Love is undoubtedly a gateway to the “chapter of their life.” The design on the cover of the book resembling yin-yang represents the unity of masculine and feminine halves.

But if the painting is turned upside down, switching top to bottom, the man’s dominant position disappears and the painting can have the following “reading.” The man and the woman are part of Cosmos itself, its dark depth approaching the border with earth. The figure with arms spread forms a cross - an intersection between the lower (earthly) and the higher (heavenly) aspects of being, where the vertical bar means ascending to heaven and horizontal bar signifies earthly existence. The lines of wood and grain and the hair of the woman merge into the current of life, referring us to the Tree of Life composition.