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Art Espresso is ArtScope.net's shortlist of recommended exhibitions currently showing.

Plants In Print:
The Age of Botanical Discovery
September 18 - November 7, 2004

Chicago Botanic Garden
1000 Lake Cook Rd
Glencoe, IL 60022
Tel. 847-835-5440
Hours: 8 a.m. to sunset
Botanic Gardens: http://www.chicagobotanic.org
Exhibition: http://www.plantsinprint.org

Printed botanic illustration had its origins in 'herbals', early works detailing the medicinal advantages of plants, with pictorial depictions to assist the herbalist in identification. From early woodcuts, basic in their communicative functionality, botanic illustration evolved into an elegant union of art and scientific accuracy that appealed to naturalists and connoisseurs alike. Plants in Print: The Age of Botanical Discovery presents 33 rare printed works chronicling the development of illustrative styles, printing technology, and the changes in botany itself in Europe and America between 1483-1879. The woodcuts have a rough, appealing vigor; the later printings catalog blossoms, plants, seeds and leaves in rich detail. It is an art fueled by science, and the well-annotated exhibition includes notes on Carl Linnaeus's groundbreaking invention of binomial nomenclature, as well as the journeys and expeditions that led to the printing of these remarkable volumes.

A companion exhibition, Treasures: Selections from the Rare Book Collections of the Chicago Botanic Garden, presents an additional 24 samples of outstanding 18th- and 19th-century botanic and natural-history prints from the Botanic Garden's library. Both Plants in Print: The Age of Botanical Discovery and Treasures: Selections from the Rare Book Collections of the Chicago Botanic Garden will be at the Chicago Botanic Garden through November 7, 2004. These singular volumes, most of them dating from the 18th and 19th centuries and often hand-colored, are well worth seeing. Both exhibitions are free of charge.

--Katherine Rook Lieber

Katherine Rook Lieber has edited ArtScope.net's Visual Arts reviews since 1998. Ms. Lieber is Editor and Associate Producer for ArtScope.net.