Herbarium - Artist´s book

In 2021, my son found an inconspicuous box in the attic. Inside was a handmade booklet with the inscription “Herbarium for Valentin Hümpfner - created on 20 April 1880”. At the age of 14, my grandfather Valentin created this herbarium. He carefully glued in dried plants and labelled them. For 140 years, pressed blossoms and plants now lay in this notebook, gradually changing their colours and strengthening their structures through the drying process. Time created works of art of unique beauty. The passing of these living beings was thus prolonged. Once again they rebel in all their beauty against the transience of all being. I photographed these plants and created new works of art with the artistic means of the present using a computer.