Abra Ancliffe’s new artist’s book Astronomia Nova Florilegia orbits the residual presence, labor, and botanical interests of one anonymous woodblock cutter who worked on Johannes Kepler’s Astronomia nova, published in 1609. Within Kepler’s revolutionary tome, multiple woodcut diagrams include 37 ensconced images of flower sprigs floating inside arcs of orbits, and leafy bundles nestled in the corners of heliocentric schema. The woodcutter personalized the blocks by carving flowers, complete with stems, leaves, and stamen. This lecture, like the artist’s book, will cover self-publishing, wildflowers of Prague, hidden and entangled readings, book structure as time travel, speculative genealogy, poetry, collage, and what it means to encounter emptiness.

Abra Ancliffe is a print- and book-maker who seeks out whe...