Microcosms

Microcosms is a book at the juncture of art, science, and technology. Stunning plant images created with a confocal microscope are accompanied by their scientific, historical, and cultural narratives, provide new ways of looking at and understanding these remarkable plants, and the world in which we live. To pay homage to sacred plants revered by Indigenous groups throughout the Americas is a way of honoring the entire world in a time of environmental emergency. The visual contents of this book magnify life in ways that may alter how humans perceive other living entities from our shared and threatened biosphere. Some of these plants contain the most potent psychoactive agents on the planet and serve as intermediaries that have enabled Native communities to communicate with their ancestors, wage war on the enemies of their land and their traditions, conceptualize entire cosmogonies, and maintain a nearly impossible ecological equilibrium. Each exquisite detail in these vital portraits is not only a way into previously unseen vegetal realms, but also a potential way out of our collective crisis.