“Deirdre Murphy blends art and science in her Contemporary Herbarium series, or “paper gardens.” Herbariums are a method of collecting botanical data. Comprised of plant specimens pressed onto paper, each sheet is annotated with data relating to the pressed plant’s taxonomy and the circumstances of its location. As a faculty member at Lehigh University, Murphy was able to conduct research with the university’s Francis J. Trembley Herbarium. The collection includes over 2000 specimens, primarily collected in eastern Pennsylvania by a pioneering professor of ecology in the 1930s. 

Inspired by studying the Trembley Herbarium, Murphy developed a series of monoprints celebrating herbariums as both a science and art form. 

Each print in Murphy’s Contemporary Herbarium series is unique. In the print studio, she coats a printing plate with colored ink and then positions the plant specimen on the plate. On scientific herbarium sheets, special mounting tape is used to affix specimens to the paper. To honor this process, which Murphy considers an artform in itself, she lays down colorful strips of tissue-thin paper. Once an herbarium sheet is assembled on the printing press, she lays down a sheet of watercolor paper. When the prepared specimen and paper are run through the printing press, an impression of the plant is left on a colored background along with the colorful tissue strips.” 

By Heather Moqtaderi