Made From This Earth, Vera Norwood
In another world, today was when The Nature Library would have taken up residence at Stills Centre for Photography in Edinburgh, turning their gallery space into a reference library and reading room for the months of May and June alongside Projects 20, an exhibition featuring artists Kat Gollock, Iman Tajik, Alex Boyd and Sekai Machache.
With that in mind, today’s page is from Vera Norwood’s Made From This Earth, exploring the relationship of women to the natural environment. Chapter three, The Illustrators - Women’s Drawings of Nature’s Artefacts, looks at the illustrators and photographers who contributed to pioneering nature studies such Lucy Say — an accomplished artist and scientific collaborator who produced accurate drawings of North American mollusks for Thomas Say’s American Conchology (shown in the gallery below).
We wish this book was on the shelves at Stills today, and that you could turn this page and read more about Lucy Say as well as Helen Lawson, Helen Winchester and Cordelia Stanwood, Graceanna Lewis and Kate Furbish, Gene Stratton Porter and Agnes Chase.
The Nature Library and Projects 20 will be presented when Stills can safely open its doors again and we’re counting those endless, unnumbered days. Until then you can view online selection of work produced by each artist for Projects 20 at Stills.org and listen to their Photography Down The Line podcast.
Vera Norwood is professor of American studies at the University of New Mexico and is coeditor of The Desert Is No Lady: Southwestern Landscapes in Women's Writing and Art.
