Illustrated on page 237 of "Book Art Object", The Codex Foundation, 2008.

Reference note:
Dry Fly Entomology by Frederic M. Halford, published in London in 1897, was the inspiration for Mayflies of the Driftless Region. Halford, the Victorian innovator and popularizer of modern fly-fishing, scientifically described and surveyed the principal British mayflies of his time, but he did not claim his work as a comprehensive entomological treatise. Instead, Dry Fly Entomology was aimed at providing anglers with a basic, working understanding of the nature of aquatic insects. Mayflies of the Driftless Region can make no such claim; it is not a field guide. Instead, it is a study of mayflies by an artist.

Entomologist Clarke Garry, professor of biology at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, has written text to accompany each of the images. Professor Garry documents the series of taxonomic steps involved in the formal scientific identification of each of the specimens. In the context of a scientific journal, these identifications would likely be dry and difficult reading for most of us. However, in the pages of a finely printed book, the poetic nature of the language can be appreciated.

Exhibition notes:
Gaia: Dialogue between the book arts, natural sciences & plant humanities. JBCBA, WAM. Curated by David Paton & Ciara Struwig. 16 September – 12 December 2025

Ref: GB/10608