This is a collection of 130 leaves mounted on herbarium paper. The leaves were sent over by other artists living in Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Latvia, Spain, and the Isles of Scilly, or they were collected by myself in Italy. The names of 339 vascular plants (Bill et al. 2011) and 131 trees (Rovers et al. 2019) extinct or close to extinction were written onto 20 digitally edited images of fossils plants taken at Bolca´s Fossil-Lagerstättenypresiane (Eocene). These images were then transferred via cyanotype on the leaves. These 130 nameless leaves, comprise around 50 different species, and have been mounted as specimens of an imaginary herbarium of forgotten, endangered plants. Their names unknown, the images and lists they carry almost unintelligible. What remains is just a collection for scientists to study.
- Rivers, M. C. et al. (2019) European Red List of Trees. IUCN Cambridge, UK and Brussels, Belgium https://portals.iucn.org/library/sites/library/files/documents/RL-4-026-En.pdf
- Bilz, M. et al. (2011) European red list of vascular plants. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union https://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/conservation/species/redlist/downloads/European_vascular_plants.pdf
Annalisa Mercuri