Leavings (2017)

by Anne Covell

Leavings is an artist book inspired by the Japanese beetle. The artist describes her interest towards the beetle upon moving to a new home in Iowa City. Covell was overwhelmed by the Japanese beetle’s “pervasive, relentless assault” on her garden. Despite the fact that it was summer and that her garden was supposed to be in full bloom, she found beauty in the decaying state the beetles left her garden in. “Somehow, it seems, even an act of destruction can leave something beautiful in its wake” (Anne Covell).

The book is made of 12 folios of 100% Japanese Gampi that have been hand-dyed in a gradient with “persimmon tannin and treated with konnyaku to mimic the sound and texture of withering foliage” (Anne Covell).