青幻舎 SEIGENSHA Art Publishing

Marking twenty years of collaboration between floral artist Azuma Makoto and photographer Shiinoki Shunsuke, this sixth volume in the Encyclopedia of Flowers series features four projects totaling more than 130 images. Whole—the artists’ life work, ongoing since the publication of the very first Encyclopedia of Flowers in 2012—presents flowers and plants of wide-ranging varieties and provenance arrayed in nonhierarchical fashion. The two new series Breath and Organ capture biological workings of flowers ordinarily imperceptible to the human eye. And the singular Incunabla project (from the Latin for “cradle”) offers digital bouquets that exist only in cyberspace. The back matter provides detailed listings of the plants in each work and an index of flower names.

Floral artist Azuma Makoto held his first overseas solo show in New York and continues to exhibit highly experimental works primarily in Europe. In 2009 he established the Azuma Makoto Kaju Kenkyujo (AMKK) botanical lab, through which he presents projects around the world as part of his unique pursuit of plants and their beauty.

Shiinoki Shunsuke, who began botanical photography at the same time that Azuma embarked on his artistic career, has since dedicated himself to capturing the forms of life as they shift in aspect from moment to moment.