Modern Nature
Leaves and Sheets
A thin catalogue of an exhibition of plant drawings is a pleasingly unconventional conceptual object. A mustard-yellow semi-card folded twice serves as a portfolio for 12 interleaved, unbound sheets. The texts on the outermost sheet are mirrored in a pale yellow on the inside of the portfolio, as if – like plants being dried – they had left marks between two sheets of paper. Indeed the plant collection, with its layering of plants and sheets of paper, is the central reference for the object. Yet the overall effect is nevertheless of a unified publication thanks to the comparatively conventional design of the 48 pages. This operates with two-column texts in a relatively bold serif font as well as one or two double pages of images for each artist, with each spread offering space for up to five illustrations in varying sizes and arrangements. While the overall result may seem somewhat nostalgic, its ephemerality and fragility are attuned to its content, so that the sometimes historical material is in fact presented in a contemporary way.
