book meadow 5.0: defiant gardens
In Juan Eduardo Cirlot’s A Dictionary of Symbols, the garden is where Nature is tamed, ordered and contained, manifesting as a symbol of consciousness (as opposed to the Forest, of the unconscious and the unknown). Meanwhile, in the context of battlefields, the garden represents all the values that oppose war in Defiant Gardens by Kenneth Helphand. Because to garden is to be anti-war, to cultivate and assert a will to be civilised, to continue holding onto beauty and meaning.
– Snippet of given brief for Book Meadow 5.0 contributors, by Yee Hsean
August: fickle weather, the ghosts are returning, neighbourhood 歌台 is playing Chinese EDM. I was graciously invited to contribute some books for the fifth edition of Book Meadow, themed “Defiant Gardens” in conjunction with Garden Symphony exhibition. Sharing the table with Pavithrah and Mars, who also contributed beautiful books. In no particular order, here are some notes on the books I brought:
- Liturgy of the Archipelago
- Flèche
- Women Looking at Women Looking at Women
- softspot
- imperfect index vol.1
- Garden of Spheres
- Nature, Love & Capitalism
- Designfully vol.1
Liturgy of the Archipelago
Sharmini Aphrodite, Feelers
“An archipelago is not separated by the sea, but drawn together by it, joined not only by the solidity of land but the fluidity of water.” A profile on Manila-born new media artist Chia Amisola, whose work focuses on the third-world internet’s love, loss, and labour. I’m always in awe of Chia’s work, and they are a major inspiration to how I think and navigate the internet. I was glad to get a copy of this during Feeler’s exhibtion during SG Art Week 2026.
While I don’t read as much as I’d like to, whatever I’ve read have mostly been from a Western-centric lens. This body of text shifted me away from that slightly, and has given me a stronger belief in Southeast Asia – “a multitudinous space in which any notions of a centre are extinguished” – and the work that is birthed from it. I feel as if it’s subconsciously impacted the way I create and view my own work.
Flèche
Mary Jean Chan
Queer daughter, Chinese mother and her mother, multi-lingual conversations, and the power of history/history of power. This poetry book collects thoughts around the generational gaps that display themselves when you’re in-between many worlds, geographically, linguistically, etc. Every poem strikes through the heart with honest confession.
The knowing of Mary’s work was gifted to me by a dear friend. First encountered her poetry in a cozy dorm room in Colchester, when it was summer break and no one was around. Sun rays filtering through the window, reading belly-down on a makeshift mattress, it felt surreal. Like the world was giving me time to catch up.
Women Looking at Women Looking at Women
Annemarie Wadlow
Frankly, I didn’t read this until I had to select books for this pop-up library. So I’m glad this opportunity gave me the chance to spend time with my own collection.
softspot (ii)
James Taylor-Foster & OK-RM
When you purchase this book, you’ll receive a set of three books. All with the same content, the only difference being the quote on the spine and cover. Its intentions were to be gifted, and gifted to me this book was. By a friend who taught me to believe in myself by being unapologetically herself, visiting cities together just to look at art books.
softspot is a peculiar anthology conceived during the Covid pandemic. A patchwork of emotionally-driven prose and imagery woven, representing “a study in how words can be written — and how they can be held in a hand.” When held, I can feel its magic. For the first few months I’ve had it, I brought it around with me like a charm. It fits perfectly in the palm of my hand.
imperfect index volume 01
abbie vickress & laura parke (eds.)
imperfect index is both a talks event and a reference book that invites practitioners working in non-traditional graphic design margins to share their projects. I’ve always wondered what graphic design can become, and this was one avenue that expanded my worldview through real-life people + projects.
This book was gifted to me, as I helped co-design the identity for the talks portion. Stewards of this project are actually educators that have taught me in university. It was a blessing to be a student under them, as I had come to learn there are ways of pedagogy that doesn’t center exponential productivity, awards, giving up agency etc.
Garden of Spheres v.1
Linnea Sterte
A stunning top-tier graphic novel from all aspects: storytelling, linework, colouring, panelling, lettering and more. Filled with pages of lush natural environments, the story is anchored to the Un-maker who assumes a feminine body. As she drifts around a world populated with gods who have the power make things, the narrative has this slow, intentional pacing that becomes its feature. What I enjoy the most is as life, death, and everything in between happens, the Un-maker is able to exist without performing societal pressures of womanhood. She has agency and conflict, she has sex if she wants to, sometimes she doesn’t care, she doesn’t meddle in others affairs. Did I also mention the beautiful renderings of nature? Just with that, I thought it fitting for the show.
Without a group order to split shipping, I wouldn’t have been able to even get this beauty of a comic. So I thank them endlessly for agreeing to split costs!
Nature, Love & Capitalism
Hannah
For a while I was deciding if I wanted to include this zine among books. In the end, it was because I found it beautiful. When formative education has long separated the arts and sciences, it was a delight to find a zine by Hannah who has a background in Ecology and actively practices in the sciences. Filled with clipart, collages and pattern, there’s a certain DIY charm to it that I hope intills a creative spark in others who aren’t formally in the arts.
It’s an easy-to-read primer for those who aren’t too familiar with any of the topics discussed. Connecting feminity and nature, there’s no academic jargon and it speaks directly from Hannah’s own thoughts and experiences. It has a similarity to Instagram slide infographics but better, because in print, it breathes the same air as you without extra distractions or requirements other than the ability to read English.
Throughout my life, I have been stripped of my agency by a patriarchal society. I have been moulded and transformed into something I am not, dehumanised and degraded and used for my body. Nature too, is stripped of its agency by this society. It is made into what is palatable, commodifiable, useful. And so all oppression resembles this pattern.
Design by Women is an Instagram account and editorial platform that shares work from women in graphic design, an industry notorious to be more male-dominated in higher positions. I had a gracious encounter with Design By Women‘s founder, Mary, who then was in the planning stage of Designfully: an expansion of her project; a magazine that includes all voices from the margins, not just Designfully.
It’s a beautiful work of labour from an all-women volunteer team. One where I had the honour to work with as I contributed some design and writing. It was really inspiring and motivating to be in a team full of women, despite being one of the younger ones in the (zoom)room, I felt like I was being treated as an equal creative contributor.
Regretfully, I didn’t manage to spend as much time as I wanted with all the other books on display. Some of my favourites were: Chutney 4, On The Necessity of Gardening, The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House, Against the Grain: A Carpentry Manual for Women.
This was the first edition of book meadow that inivited contributions from people outside the visual design sphere, and what was offered reflected that. What I’ve realised is that a good number of books on display talk about belief in a better world, each in their own words and expertise. A world that is inhabitable, sustainable, and lively. A gardener is always a futurist. To more book meadows and defiant gardens.
Book Meadow is a wandering pop-up library showcasing books from the personal collections of friends, artists, writers, creatives and other guest contributors.