Battlefield, 2022–2024
Visual concept for the work of the same name by Australian artist Gabriella Hirst. The project takes the form of a garden composed of plants whose officially registered cultivar names reference theatres of war, armed conflict, and military operations. It investigates how historical and political layers become embedded within seemingly functional design parameters. The “Hershey” font, used throughout the visual identity, was developed in 1967 by Dr. Allen Vincent Hershey at the Naval Weapons Laboratory. It was selected for its dual connotations: its origins within military research and its contemporary use in applications such as laser engraving, a technique commonly employed in the production of botanical signage. The typeface thus became an integral part of the conceptual framework, linking the cultivation of plants to infrastructures of military history.
The project materialised as an online archive, on-site botanical signage, and a risograph-printed publication.
The exhibition was curated by Anna Voswinckel & Anja Lückenkemper, commissioned by Kunsthalle Osnabrück

The accompanying website acts as an archive which can be accessed without being on location. It displays info, photos, etc. about every flower in the installation. Each column in the index can be sorted, including the colors. Development in collaboration with Boris von Hopffgarten.

www.battlefield.garden

The Battlefield publication includes an index of the stories behind every plant in the Battlefield living garden archive, including excerpts from email correspondence with plant societies, gardening blogs, horticultural archives, plant care tips, personal anecdotes and speculations alongside compiled ephemera and research material gathered from the Battlefield project from 2014 to the present day, in its current expanded installation at the Gedenkstätte Augustaschacht, Ohrbeck. 

It features essays by curator and researcher Anja Lückenkemper and Gabriella Hirst, and a poster-dust jacket of the planting guide of Battlefield as installed at the Kunsthalle Osnabrück in 2022–2023. The publication was first launched at NYABF 2024 and was shortlisted at the Förderpreis für junge Buchgestaltung 2025 by Stiftung Buchkunst.

48 pages, 20 × 28 cm, 12 pages of 3-color riso (blue, fluo pink, and yellow) and 36 pages 1-color riso (brown), Softcover, stapled brochure with dust-jacket, which unfolds into a A1 poster, printed in 4-color offset; bookmark/contents insert printed in riso. Edition: 300, publication printed by Colorama, dust-jacket: Druckhaus Sportflieger, Berlin.

Distribution through: K Verlag (Germany), Jesse Presse (NL/B) and Antenne Books (UK),
ISBN: 978-3-00-078701-0

photo: Andreas Berger, 2022

photo: Andreas Berger, 2022

Battlefield, 2022–2024
Visual concept for the work of the same name by Australian artist Gabriella Hirst. The project takes the form of a garden composed of plants whose officially registered cultivar names reference theatres of war, armed conflict, and military operations. It investigates how historical and political layers become embedded within seemingly functional design parameters. The “Hershey” font, used throughout the visual identity, was developed in 1967 by Dr. Allen Vincent Hershey at the Naval Weapons Laboratory. It was selected for its dual connotations: its origins within military research and its contemporary use in applications such as laser engraving, a technique commonly employed in the production of botanical signage. The typeface thus became an integral part of the conceptual framework, linking the cultivation of plants to infrastructures of military history.
The project materialised as an online archive, on-site botanical signage, and a risograph-printed publication.
The exhibition was curated by Anna Voswinckel & Anja Lückenkemper, commissioned by Kunsthalle Osnabrück

The Battlefield publication includes an index of the stories behind every plant in the Battlefield living garden archive, including excerpts from email correspondence with plant societies, gardening blogs, horticultural archives, plant care tips, personal anecdotes and speculations alongside compiled ephemera and research material gathered from the Battlefield project from 2014 to the present day, in its current expanded installation at the Gedenkstätte Augustaschacht, Ohrbeck. 

It features essays by curator and researcher Anja Lückenkemper and Gabriella Hirst, and a poster-dust jacket of the planting guide of Battlefield as installed at the Kunsthalle Osnabrück in 2022–2023. The publication was first launched at NYABF 2024 and was shortlisted at the Förderpreis für junge Buchgestaltung 2025 by Stiftung Buchkunst.

48 pages, 20 × 28 cm, 12 pages of 3-color riso (blue, fluo pink, and yellow) and 36 pages 1-color riso (brown), Softcover, stapled brochure with dust-jacket, which unfolds into a A1 poster, printed in 4-color offset; bookmark/contents insert printed in riso. Edition: 300, publication printed by Colorama, dust-jacket: Druckhaus Sportflieger, Berlin.

Distribution through: K Verlag (Germany), Jesse Presse (NL/B) and Antenne Books (UK),
ISBN: 978-3-00-078701-0

photo: Andreas Berger, 2022

Laser-cut botanical signs, various sizes