Text

Text pages and captions are handwritten in Latin by Atkins in the original ‘Photographs of British Algae’ book. In the new book text has been re-written using the same handwriting style of Atkins, painstakingly re-created to inform about the fast fashion issue and of the clothing ‘specimens’ recovered.

In the case of Atkins, the dedication page to her father reads: ‘To my dear Father this attempt is affectionately inscribed’. In Barker’s new representation the same page reads: ‘To my dear Father this attempt is to affect appropriately’ - with the two prints difficult to distinguish apart.

Letters on the original title page ‘Vol I’ were constructed by Atkins from pieces of algae, whereas in the new representation synthetic fibres from the recovered clothing have been used to mimic this same text.

Specimen captions show the first original Latin word of each algae species, but in the new representation the second word has been changed to the Latin name of the clothing represented. Two hundred and two synthetic specimens form a list of contents over three pages, and are placed in a specific order, starting with the outer garments of clothing such as a waterproof parka coat, and ending with inner garments of underwear – close to the heart.