Compass Plant Map

Compass Plant/Map is an artist book inspired by Silphium laciniatum’s flat vertical leaves that point north and south but face east and west, hence their use in orientation on the tallgrass prairie. Photographs of their flat, planar leaves are layered with a topographic map of the collection site with topographic lines that resemble the shape of compass plant leaves. The outside includes text prepared as if it were an herbarium specimen, including the collector and the site of collection. The map is rotated 90 degrees on the inside, so the fingers of the leaves point north and south.