Flowers are desired, used, and interpreted – as symbols of peace, life, and insight. They thus open up a network of complex meanings that extends far beyond the realm of botany. This anthology brings together essays by various authors from the fields of botany, cultural studies, philosophy, and art, and accompanies the transdisciplinary exhibition series BLOOM. It explores how the flower shapes science, gives rise to myths, and is embedded in colonial contexts – and how its hybridity, fragility, and strength reveal new perspectives on an entangled world.

Katrin Bucher Trantow, Andreja Hribernik, Marko Mele (Eds.)

With contributions by Arnold Achmüller, Hans-Peter Bojar, Daniela Brasil, Katrin Bucher Trantow, Anita Fuchs, Margit Horvath-Suntinger, Andreja Hribernik, Katharina Krenn, Gabriele Mackert, Marko Mele, Ryts Monet, Barbara Müller, Marie-Louise Oschatz, Marcello Di Paola, Peter Peer, Karl Peitler, Paul Schuster, Banu Subramaniam, Reinhard Tuder, Marc Philipp Wahl, and Kurt Zernig.

Published by Transcript Verlag, Bielefeld

384 pages, English/German