by Amy Claussen

The Bio-Medical Library is excited to announce the latest installment in its rotating Art@Bio-Med exhibit series: Pharmacopoeia: Medicinal Plants Growing In My Backyard by artist Linda Gammell.

This exhibition highlights photographic and text selections from Gammell’s artist’s book project “Pharmacopoeia: Medicinal Plants Growing in My Backyard  Lot 8, Site 4” part of the  University of Minnesota Libraries rare books collection at Wilson Library.

Gammell says her “lab” is a typical urban lot with flowerbeds, borders, lawn, and weeds. The investigation begins by identifying and photographing some 55 medicinal plants growing there.

Gammell adds that her work draws from family narrative, personal garden history, and scientific knowledge of medicine and plants from earlier centuries through today’s global demand for naturally healing chemicals found in plants.

The visual design of the Pharmacopoeia book project was inspired by historical herbals and by the images created by naturalists, photographers, and artists during the great age of natural history exploration of the 16th – 18th centuries. These images illustrate the natural wonders of the world.

“The project”, Gammell says, “pays homage to our creative desire to understand the world through art and science and to the incredible biodiversity literally at our feet within steps from our homes.”

Exhibit details

What: Pharmacopoeia: Medicinal Plants Growing In My Backyard
When: September 5 – December 15, 2017
Where: Bio-Medical Library, 2nd floor, Diehl Hall

This event is free and open to the public.

About the artist

Linda Gammell is a photographer and bookmaker. Her work, which deals with our connections to the natural world, has been shown nationally and is in the collections of many museums, libraries, and art institutions.

Gammell is the recipient of numerous grants and fellowships, including those from the McKnight Foundation, the Bush Foundation, the Jerome Foundation, Arts Midwest (National Endowment for the Arts), and the Minnesota State Arts Board.

She was associate professor of art at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design for 20 years, as well as visiting and adjunct instructor at Colorado College, St. Olaf College, Hamline University, and the College of Visual Arts in St. Paul.

Gammell was also a founding member of the Women’s Art Registry of Minnesota and has worked collaboratively on film, book, and exhibition projects about women, agriculture, and food.