when you look at cindy jaswal's art, which concentrates on environmental issues, working with pen and ink, you will also understand her collection of natural history and botanical reference books. i loved reading her reasons and passion behind these collections and i'm sure you will too.

why you collect these items and how your collection started?
Along with being an artist and mummy to two little boys I'm studying to be a herbalist and eventually a midwife. A major part of my herbalist training is getting out into the woods and seashores and identifying and harvesting samples. These little books help me and are very precious to me, my husband collects them whenever he finds one as well. They are natural history and botanical reference books specific to British Columbia. I love the pocket-size of them. I am crazy over the line drawings as well.



how do you display them or would like to display them?
I look at them everyday. For now they are just in a bookshelf, but I would love to find a lovely piece of bark and have them all sitting up on it.



what are your favorite pieces in the collection, is there anything unique?
The Food Plants of BC Coastal Peoples is a favourite. A lot of this information is being lost as younger people have other priorities. Story-telling is a major way of keeping traditions alive, it's nice to have a lot of info in a tiny little format.




what piece are you most looking for, and what piece would complete your collection?
There are a lot of these books all made between the 1960's and 1970's, I have about twelve, I have a feeling there are a lot more to get.