The paintings that grew out of the residency, which were first shown together at the Saïd Business School in Oxford in an exhibition called World in a Chamber, explored how geometry could provide a framework for the appreciation of nature, and how the structure of botanic gardens could be challenged by nature’s profusion. The guide that accompanied the exhibition featured an essay by the writer and broadcaster Philip Hoare.

The residency also generated The Family Beds, an artist’s book that simultaneously functions as a practical guide to the systematic or family beds at Oxford. Featuring essays by Louise Allen, Curator of the University of Oxford Botanic Garden and Professor Mark Chase, Head of Molecular Systematics Section at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, it was produced at a time when the plant collection in the historic walled garden was being rearranged in accordance with the new genetic data and occupies a place in-between the abstractions of plant science and the earthy realities of horticulture.

Commissioned by the Ruskin School of Art and the University of Oxford Botanic Garden and supported by funding from Arts Council England and the Arts and Humanities Research Council.