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Claire Takacs, “Trompe l’oeil, Schwetzingen Palace, Mittelbau Schloss, Germany” (2016), photograph, dimensions variable. Image © the artist

An Expansive New Book Cultivates Our Global Love for Gardens

Kate Mothes

Spanning more than four millennia of horticultural heritage, a forthcoming tome from Phaidon celebrates the diverse mediums, trends, and traditions of gardens around the globe. Brimming with more than 300 full-color illustrations, Garden: Exploring the Horticultural World encompasses how geography, time periods, and purpose influence myriad landscape designs and gardening culture, along with numerous other art forms.

Garden highlights a vast range of art and ephemera, including plans for historic royal properties, how-to guides, maps, and representations in pop culture. From a Japanese tea garden fashioned from LEGO to an 18th-century Mughal garden in India to Monsieur Plant’s hydroponic system inside an iMac, the expansive tome showcases the immense breadth and imagination in gardens of all shapes and sizes.

Pre-order your copy on Bookshop.

An abstract artwork of plants by Ebony G. Patterson
Ebony G. Patterson, “…below the crows, a blue purse sits between the blades, shoes among the petals, a cockerel comes to witness…” (2019), mixed media, 110 × 98 × 6 inches. Image courtesy of the artist, Monique Meloche Gallery, and Hales New York/London
Casey Boyden, “Japanese Tea Garden” (2007), LEGO, 10 1/4 × 17 3/4 × 11 3/4 inches. Image courtesy of the artist
An 18th-century drawing of a Mughal garden.
Hafiz Nurallah, “A View of Shalimar Bagh, Srinagar, from the Polier Album” (c.1780), opaque watercolor heightened with gold on paper, 9 ½ × 14 ½ inches. Image courtesy of Sotheby’s
An iMac with plants inside
Christophe Guinet (Monsieur Plant), “Plant Your Mac!” (2020), mixed media, 23 5/8 × 12 5/8 inches. Image © the artist
An 18th-century map of the physic garden in Chelsea, London
John Haynes, “The Physic Garden, Chelsea: A Plan View” (1751), engraving with watercolor, 24 ¼ × 18 ¾ inches. Image courtesy of the Wellcome Collection, London
A 16th-century medicinal plants book
Bernardino de Sahagún, “General History of the Things of New Spain: The Florentine Codex” (1577), ink on paper, each page 12 ¼ × 8 ¼ inches, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence. Image courtesy of Library of Congress, Rare Book and Special Collections Division
A spread of the book 'Garden'
A photograph by Claire Takacs of a trompe-l'oeil painted landscape seen through a rocky tunnel
Claire Takacs, “Trompe l’oeil, Schwetzingen Palace, Mittelbau Schloss, Germany” (2016), photograph, dimensions variable. Image © the artist
A spread of the book 'Garden' featuring a horizontal historic garden map
The cover of the book 'Garden'

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