The front of artist Ann Shelton's award-winning new book worm, root, wort.. & bane bears an image of a small silvered glass flask held in the Pitt Rivers Museum at Oxford University. The flask is said to contain a witch. The original owner reputedly warned that if you took off the wax seal from the flask, then there would be a 'peck o'trouble'. Shelton's artist book doesn't directly advocate for the seal to be broken, but does suggest it's high time we let a bigger 'genie' out of the bottle. That is, the historical and contemporary treatment of healers, gardeners, foragers and 'wise women' who have connected us to nature. Worm, root, wort & bane takes a wide-ranging look at cultural attitudes towards the witch, plants as well as the suppression of plant-based medicine and belief systems.
