Another World Inside this One is inspired by idioms that reference an object that has been altered so many times that little remains of its original material – regional variants include 'Captain Cook's axe' and 'George Washington's axe'. Though there is scant proof that Captain James Cook ever had his own axe, these sayings that flow from a common belief that he did – and that the head of the tool was replaced twice and the handle six times, begging the question: is it still the same axe? Zac Langdon-Pole develops this idea by carving and painting this shop-bought version so that the wooden handle resembles its origins as a hickory tree sapling.