Rhiannon Alpers
Finding Her Place: The Woman Behind the Naturalist , 2019
Artwork Shop
9.5 x 9
x 2
in
Rhiannon Alpers is a rare bird. She loves books and nature and these two great loves come together in flawlessly beautiful books characterized by sensitivity, subtlety and a sublime attention to detail, all under her imprint, Gazelle and Goat. In another life, she might have been a naturalist. For years, the gallery has shown examples of the “Specimen Series,” - box-like books with butterflies, moths, larvae – all manner of species, catalogued with handwritten notes like those a 17th century entomologist might have made. Alpers treatment of these specimens speaks to her reverence for the distinctive special qualities of all species and an insatiable curiosity about the endless variety of things found in nature.
Her book Finding Her Place: The Woman Behind the Naturalist is about Jeanne Baret, the first woman to circumnavigate the globe, securing her place on board by disguising herself as a man. She was a member of Louis Antoine de Bougainville’s expedition on the ships La Boudeuse and Etoile in 1766 – 1769.
It is a beautifully designed and executed book, emblematic of Alpers’ intellectual and aesthetic interests.
From the text:
"When Jeanne Baret stepped on-board the Etoile ship in 1766, she didn’t set out to be the first woman to circumnavigate the globe. Alongside her colleague, accomplice and lover, Philibert Commerson, she took on many roles during the expedition as a botanist, herb woman, nurse, and cataloger of the more than 630 specimens they brought aboard. This limited edition artist book traces the expedition of the first woman to circumnavigate the globe, through the lens of the botanical discoveries she made along the ship’s journey. Jeanne Baret was not able to document the expedition herself, due to the forbidden nature of her passage on this journey, but her legacy has inspired many, and spurred the creation of this book."
The book has a removable magnetic spine binding that opens completely back-to-back, with a digitally produced specimen chart hidden within. Folio maps are letterpress printed from polymer plates, adapted from French expedition maps from the published logs “Voyage Autour du Monde par la Frégate du rio la Boudeuse et la Fluté L’Etoile. Plant outlines are laser cut and secured with Japanese tissue. Laser cut specimens were adapted from the original plant specimens collected by Commerson and Baret on the expedition, archived in the Museum of Natural History in Paris.
