"The petrified tree recalls the trees that once stood on this site and that were the source of materials on which written language has been recorded," Sanborn comments about his decision to interpret in terms of how information is accrued throughout the ages.  "...Information is symbolized in the chemical and physical effects that produced the materials and in other more literal ways."

"Metaphor has always been important to me. Petrified trees and fossils were once moving, growing, and living, but have been somehow transfixed, turned to stone."

The column of petrified wood from Arizona stands on the edge of the unfurled copperplate that is supported by it.  A stair-like top is the result of how the wood broke off from the rest of the tree.