Like fingerprints, supposedly no two snowflakes are alike. And this same observation can also be made of "Dr. Snowflake"’s latest blizzard at the University of Michigan Hospital — because his fingerprints are all over them.

Let’s simply say it’s time for our annual seasonal dusting of Thomas Clark’s paper snowflakes. Clark — alias “Dr. Snowflake ”— has blanketed Ann Arbor with his cutouts since 1987, when he began making these miniature artworks at a remarkable pace.

A 1964 graduate of U-M’s School of Medicine — and a hospital physician from 1967 to 1993 — Clark gradually shifted his interest to art after learning how to make paper snowflakes from then U-M Hospital secretary Loretta Ennis, who learned the craft from a patient.

Clark’s subsequently made thousands of these relatively diminutive artworks in the last 22 years. And there seems to be no slowing down of the whiteout, because this latest batch of snowflakes — depicting Biblical stories from Adam though Noah — is as imaginative as has been his previous snowstorms.

Prior Clark themes have included “A Kingdom by the Sea” (illustrating Edgar Allen Poe’s “Annabel Lee”); “Hans Christian Snowflakes” (illustrating Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Little Matchstick Girl”); and “The Sermon on the Mount.”

Remarkably enough, Clark’s snowflakes are indeed like the snowflakes of nature, with no two cutouts alike. They’re not even remotely alike.

Each snowflake is like a sculpture made out of paper. Each has a unique identity reflecting a crucial passage in the chosen source material with an equal amount of complexity carved out of minimal space.

As such, each 1-foot Clark snowflake begins from a single tri-folded piece of paper. Yet what Clark does with his paper is not simple; the very design of the snowflake, whether in a positive-relief or negative-relief format with an open or closed design, is an intricate marvel worthy of sustained study.

They are, ultimately, magnificent art by any standard.

Clark’s crafted one of Ann Arbor’s most unique aesthetics through these last two decades. And as the evidence in this exhibit shows, his prolific imagination seemingly has no bounds. Nor is his energy flagging.

Whether depicting the animals of the Ark in repose; skillfully recounting the harrowing escape of the Israelites from Egypt; or crafting composite figures and portraits through up to four multifaceted planes of spatial perspective, each Clark snowflake has a steadfast integrity that’s distinctively suited to his art as well as to its subject.

John Carlos Cantú is a free-lance writer who reviews art for AnnArbor.com.

“Exodus and the Flood: Storytelling Snowflakes” continues through February 8 at the University of Michigan Health System Taubman Lobby North, Floor 1 Gallery, 1500 East Medical Center Drive. Gallery hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., daily. For information, call 734-936-ARTS.