Holly Downing
Vanishing , 2021
8.5 x 7.625
x 1.75
in
Vanishing, is the beautiful collaboration between artist Holly Downing and book artist Rhiannon Alpers, with letterpress poems by Jane Hirshfield. Housed in a cloth-bound box, 11 hand-colored 3” x 3” mezzotints of some of the most beautiful endangered insects, Vanishing both celebrates these particular insects and mourns species loss and the “insect apocalypse” scientists are predicting, caused by habitat loss, invasive species, pesticides and climate warming. The book measures 8 1/2” x 7 5/8” x 1 3/4” and contains a gray hand made cotton rag paper for this drop spine box with cover window.
The imagery in Vanishing revolves around insects currently considered threatened or endangered. They are part of the insect apocalypse. Threats to their survival include habitat loss and fragmentation, invasion of non-native species, pesticide application, and global warming. The poems bring our attention to the tiny but rich, and too often overlooked, world of insects. Each insect plays an important part in the health of the ecosystem it inhabits.
The unique challenge in the creation of the Vanishing collaborative edition, was how to capture a somber and reverent tone while illuminating the beauty and delight these creatures bring to our environment. The intention for the book’s richness lies in its texture and subtleties in support of the imagery and poetry. It gives us as viewers, a chance to take each of these insects metaphorically into our hands and treasure it. The simplicity emphasizes the insects’ small size while magnifying them for our view, to peek at them through a small window and let their surroundings disappear.
Downing is a master of the beautiful mezzotint medium. The insects she included in the edition are:
Monarch Butterfly, Red-Winged Grasshopper, Delta Green Ground Beetle, Rusty Patched Bumblebee, Stag Beetle, Bay Checkerspot Butterfly, Hawaiian Green Sphinx Moth, American Burying Beetle, Smith’s Blue Butterfly, Southern Damselfly, and Valley Elderberry Longhorn Beetle.
