An imagined collaboration between Mrs. Mary Delany (1700–88), an English widow, woman of accomplishment, and creator of imaginative botanical “paper mosaicks,” and Herr Ernest Haeckel (1852–1911), a distinguished and controversial German biologist and artist who devoted much of his time to the study and rendering of single-celled creatures.
The book, which expands on a paper-cutting theme presented in Cutting Paper (2013), presents 11 cut-paper interpretations of microscopic organisms tipped on to captioned plates. An introductory text provides some biographic background for Delany and Haeckel, and describes how the cut-paper renderings may have come about. An appendix provides a detailed taxonomy and nomenclature for each of the plates.
The book (6 x 8.5 inches, 50 pp.) is set in Fournier, with cut-paper initial letters tipped in. Printed on dampened Arches wove with the handpress at HM; uniformly bound in full polished leather, with a clamshell box, by Claudia Cohen. Edition of 25 numbered copies signed by the author, binder and printer.
