wood

This highly unusual book's title translates to: A Representation of Inland and Foreign Wood: As Well Trees as [sic] Shrubs which are Collected by the Lovers of Natural History in their Cabinets of Natural Curiosities for Use and Pleasure… Exotic and rare wood samples were often artifacts that were part of a collection of curiousities, as well as the woods used in crafting a cabinet of curiousities. This is a survey of indigenous woods from around the world.

This beautiful book, a wordless novel, tells a story of the African slave trade and one slave trader’s obsession and tragic downfall—all in 128 powerful woodcuts that combine Art Deco and Expressionist styles. Lynd Ward was one of America’s finest wood engravers, and the detailed, complicated plates in this book show him as a master craftsman and illustrator who could also reveal psychological anguish through his art. The plates in this second-edition copy are reproduced photographically; the front and back covers are bound in papers showing a woodcut-style design in black and white.

There is a commonly held superstition that illicitly removing specimens of petrified wood from Arizona's Petrified Forest National Park is bad luck. As a result, the National Park Service receives many of these returned rocks with “conscience letters” of regret from over the years. The letters have been carefully archived and the purloined samples are now in a “conscience pile” at the end of the park property. The rocks cannot be distributed on the park land as the exact provenance for each piece can never be known, and areas need to be kept as pristine as possible for future research.