The Wood Engraver's Alphabet [avisannschild's review]

avisannschild carves out a different review than she expected for The Wood Engraver's Alphabet:

I’m embarrassed to admit that I misunderstood the blurb about this book on Mini Book Expo, so I was very surprised to realize this book contains no words past the three-page introduction, other than the names of the 26 plants illustrated.

Although I am, in some small way, a “student of the complexities of nature’s creations,”* as I have studied herbology, my main interest is in wild medicinal plants, so I wasn’t familiar with many of the plants illustrated here. And I don’t really know anything about wood engraving. Disclaimers aside, this is a beautiful book: I love the texture of the book’s cover (which I can’t help stroking every time I pick it up), and the woodcuts themselves are intricate and lovely. A few of them seem too small to do justice to the details of the engravings, but for the most part I felt like I could spend hours gazing at each of them, marvelling at Brender à Brandis’s skill and meditating on each plant.

*According to the blurb on the back of this book, “This collection is intended both for the student of the complexities of nature’s creations and the patron of the intricate art of wood engraving.”

Keep reading avisannschild's review...

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More information

• Extra Info: Excerpt
• Porcupine's Quill | Chapters.ca  | Amazon.com 
• ISBN-10: 0889843112 
• ISBN-13: 978-0889843110