Groundwork: the Art and Writing of Emily Cummings Harris

, Book by Michele Leggott and Catherine Field-Dodgson

Part creative exploration, part careful research, this long-awaited book highlights Emily Harris, one of New Zealand’s most important 19th–20th century botanical artists.

Harris’s paintings, bridging scientific illustration and art, are matched here by a book that blends biography with imaginative storytelling, offering a moving and engaging experience. It restores a nearly forgotten figure to Aotearoa’s art history.

While previously considered alongside peers like Sarah Featon and Georgina Hetley, Harris’s unique voice and nearly 200 surviving works have rarely been seen outside archives.

Groundwork brings her life, diaries, letters, poems, and paintings together for the first time, celebrating a remarkable legacy.

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Pages: 384

Format: Hardback