When Cicero wrote this to fellow Roman scholar Varro, he was likely referring to a courtyard garden surrounded by a library. But his observation is particularly apt in relation to this exhibition.

Plant Life creates the story that vegetation has infiltrated the library and started to grow inside. To that end, six individual artists or collectives have made installations that appear to have entered through the gallery’s six windows (one of the installations also has an outdoor element). Each explores a different, but interconnected, theme related to the plant, fungi or algae kingdoms.

These site-specific pieces are accompanied by other artworks-including paintings, photographs, sculptures, monotypes and collages that consider the dualist relationship of the natural environment and human culture. A number of the works highlight the intrinsic beauty of flowers and plants, but they also challenge us to think beyond the human-centered Anthropocene.

Featuring twenty-two artists, Plant Life explores several related, intertwining themes. These include the kinship of plants and humans; the impact of climate change on the environment; and the ability of plants, fungi and algae to communicate with their own kind and with other organisms. Combined, the works raise the question: in a post-human world, will plants take center stage?

If having a garden in our library doesn’t make everything “complete,” we hope that, like the best gardens (and libraries), it elicits wonder, and thought.