Revue Faire issue 33 – Ligneous, tentacular forms: Man-eating plants and decorative invasions
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Published by Empire Books
ISBN: 9791095991199
France, 2021
29.7 x 21 cm
20 pages

Author: Camille Pageard
A new literary genre emerged in 19th century England. The gothic novel appropriated themes that would nourish modern Western cultural productions. Evil spirits,  repugnant bodies, exaggerated emotions and a deranged Nature became the protagonists of extra-rational representations. A sub-genre developed within this new trend, where hostile vegetation killed and devoured people with its tentacular vines and roots, poisoned scents and thorny maws. The literary taste for horror led to a new “pleasure of the eye” deployed by illustrators on panels and on the covers of books. This invasion of images in the 19th century was also the invasion of a hybrid Nature, much less tame and regulated than the history of the ornament might suggest.