The well-lived life of pioneering and prolific glass sculptor Ramon Orlina has been extensively chronicled — no minute aspect of his existence remains unwritten. Yet with the much-anticipated release of Ramon Orlina: Visions in Glass, there remains a compelling reason to leisurely walk through that past once again.

The hefty coffee-table volume was one tome I simply could never read in bed, for it spans 57 chapters and 572 pages. Authored by respected art critic, curator and cultural historian Cid Reyes, it is less a biography than a procession of parades on a gentleman who has successfully and artistically shaped one of the most unforgiving materials into lyrical masterpieces — cool, luminous, and seemingly suspended between solidity and light —which have long occupied cathedrals and churches, museums and galleries, universities and academies, hotels and resorts, several private collections in heritage castles, heirloom manor houses, and inherited mansions.

The observant Reyes, whose voluminous writings have authentically documented the unfolding evolution of Philippine visual arts, understands Orlina’s story is on innovation.

“I first study the shape of each piece of glass (cullet) for its natural shape,” Orlina says in the book. “I have to view it from all eight angles. The sculpture must look good on all sides… and the inside, too!” he continued.