Wild Wisdom
Authentic Creations Publishing Apothecary
https://artisticapothecary.wordpress.com/
Wild Wisdom is a black and white US half-fold zine about plant life cycles, nature, and more that takes a somewhat more spiritual approach to the subjects.
I’m not a gardener or grower by any sense of the word, but I find the entire subject quite fascinating and welcome educating myself on the matter. But unlike a how-to guide as such, Wild Wisdom incorporates a mix of typed text, handwritten text, and hand drawn elements to create a collection of nature on the intuitive side.
Wild Wisdom opens with a brief introduction to the zine and the ones who had a hand in creating it. On the opposite page of the spread is a ‘programs’ list, but admittedly it’s not entirely clear where or when these things take place. However, that’s neither here nor there as we jump into the zine.
Seed life cycles, the importance of plants derived from plants rather than cloned or otherwise manufactured, plant anatomy, and more are found in the pages that follow. This one takes us through a world of respectful and grateful harvesting, urging people to take more time to learn about nature’s growth. In amongst these are handdrawn diagrams of things like the Sea Hibiscus as well as differences in annual, biennial, and monocarp plant life cycles.
Aesthetically this zine fits right into the cut and paste feels with its mixed of drawn and typed elements. There are bits here and there that are a little difficult because of dark copying and a bit of text cut off but nothing that stopped me from reading. I enjoyed the little pictured of hands holding up fingers to denote the page numbers and other little elements this one included.
I also enjoyed the feelings of reverence from this one in the way this one writes about respecting plants and giving gratitude to plants. From the drawings of certain plants to a small mention about changing our perspective of ‘invasive’ in the bounds of how habitats evolve and change.
Wild Wisdom is a zine that feels like a scrapbook with a little bit of everything. If you want a more cut and dry zine about plant growing and plant life cycles, then this may not be the zine for you. However, if you’re interested in something a bit more – pardon the pun – organic, then this is one you may enjoy checking out.
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