The Invisible Harvest: A Microhistory of Heretical Herbs

A five-part essay and accompanying series of hand-cut collages by Bethany van Rijswijk, The Invisible Harvest is an artist's publication that seeks to challenge the materialism of 'big history' by presenting a microhistory of heretical herbs. An analysis of hidden histories and obscure lore, in which poisonous and psychoactive plants open up passages into contrary states of being, van Rijswijk's publication is concerned, variously, with visionary sacraments, the flight of witches, sinister berries, fairy forts, rhizomes, underworld gardens, cursed bread, mushroom cults, and dancing plagues. An experiment in historical method as a means for re-enchantment, The Invisible Harvest nevertheless asks what these histories might disrupt, and how these old heresies, half-obliterated, might renew our thinking.