Issue 6: Topiary

The art of trimming and pruning trees and shrubs into fanciful shapes. What’s up with our unrelenting desire to clip and sculpt the natural world into submission?

Including:
Magnum Opus Topiarium – Botanical philosopher Norbert Peeters takes us through the history of topiary and the changing views of nature.
Le Bal Des Ifs – a comic by artist Fiona Lutjenhuis.
Topiary in Art History – From holy, to phallic, to terrifying, topiary has been depicted in many ways.
It may have been a formal garden, once – We talked to the wonderful Chris Crowder, head gardener at Levens Hall, the oldest topiary gardens in the world.
Niwaki – Alec Schellinx observes the Japanese tradition of niwaki
What’s Eating Hedges – Writer Eliot Haworth ponders the fight against suburban monoculture. With illustrations by Jordan Herregraven.
The Shape of Shrubs to Come – A glimpse of the future of topiary by artist Rustan Söderling.

Centrefold miniatures by Andrei Pacea

The cover is by Lou-Lou van Staaveren & Guus Kaandorp and the inside cover is by Jan Dirk van der Burg