【Book Description】
Plants have long been a recurring subject in contemporary art. From botanical illustrations and landscape painting to ecological art, artists have continually used the plant world to reconsider the relationship between nature, humanity, and the environment. Yet what makes Luiz Zerbini: Botanica, Monotypes 2016–2020 truly compelling is that it does not seek to depict plants—it allows them to become active participants in the making of the work itself.
Brazilian artist Luiz Zerbini has spent decades working across painting, photography, sculpture, and printmaking, but this body of work adopts a remarkably restrained approach. Leaves, flowers, and branches collected by the artist are placed directly onto inked metal plates, allowing their forms and textures to be transferred onto paper through the monotype printing process. Here, the artist acts less as a creator controlling the final image than as a facilitator, bringing together materials and process. Every print is shaped by subtle variations in pressure, humidity, ink, and the plants themselves, making each impression entirely unique. This is the enduring beauty of the monotype: it preserves both the unpredictability of creation and the traces of life once present.
As the pages unfold, it becomes easy to forget that one is looking at plants. A restrained palette of black, brown, and deep green gradually dissolves their botanical identity, transforming veins, petals, and branches into compositions of light, rhythm, and space. The images shift between abstraction and representation, evoking botanical specimens, satellite topographies, or even microscopic cellular structures. Rather than presenting plants as symbols of nature, Zerbini transforms the act of looking itself into an ever-evolving sensory experience.
This approach also reflects a significant shift within contemporary art in recent years. Plants are no longer treated merely as subjects of representation, but as living entities with their own agency. Philosopher Emanuele Coccia argues in his accompanying essay that plants are not passive objects awaiting human interpretation, but forms of life continuously creating their own existence. Art, therefore, becomes not a depiction of nature but a collaborative process in which different forms of life participate together. In dialogue with botanist Stefano Mancuso's writings, the book creates a rich interdisciplinary conversation between art, philosophy, and plant science, while extending Fondation Cartier's longstanding commitment to ecology, cross-disciplinary collaboration, and new perspectives on the natural world.
For this reason, Luiz Zerbini: Botanica, Monotypes 2016–2020 resists classification as simply a monograph on printmaking. It is better understood as a living botanical archive—a visual study of time, materiality, and life itself. At a moment when the world is increasingly shaped by rapid production and instantaneous imagery, Zerbini deliberately slows the creative process, allowing plants to leave their own imprint and restoring the act of looking to its original purpose: not to identify, but to feel. Perhaps this is the book's greatest achievement. It offers no definitive answers, but instead leaves open the possibility of forging a renewed relationship with nature through every delicate vein and imprint.
【Details】
Author: Luiz Zerbini, Emanuele Coccia, Stefano Mancuso
Publisher: Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain
Publication Year: 2021
Dimensions: 40 × 28 cm
Binding: Hardcover
Pages: 296 pages
