Elizabeth DeCoste

07 A Pocket Guide to A Collection

A nano publication mimicking the format of field guides.

“A Pocket Guide to A Collection is a companion book to my thesis work Specufabula, combining found imagery and text sourced from vintage field guides and biodiversity archives with photographs of objects in my collection. Research using Canadian field guides and other regional flora-fauna information, I researched each item in my collection in order to determine its taxonomic origins to the best of my ability. The taxonomic nomenclature of each object is included, contrasting to the poetics of the cataloging system in Earthsong. Using the aesthetic form of a field guide, I approach the taxonomy of my found objects in an exploratory manner. This pocket guide acts both as a catalogue of the items currently in my collection, and as an archive of visual information about each item and its life. Combining scientific illustrations, field guides, taxonomic classification, and mapping practices provides context to each item in my collection and answers the questions of "what?" and "where?" that are evoked in the audiences’ minds when they are presented with the objects in Specufabula. To see the full content of the publication, follow the PDF link above.”