This text explores the work of vanguard artist Mark Dion who has made site-specific projects all over the world which explore the relationship of Western art, literature and museology with the natural environment. His sculptures and installations often focus on contemporary environmental issues, and have the uncanny quality of film sets or dioramas. His life-size environments have included live and stuffed animals, plants, lab equipment, and museological displays of garbage. They present lyrical and funny investigations into exoticism, colonialism and environmental crisis.

Combining humour and seriousness, this picture-filled book beautifully documents an artistic collaboration across more than two centuries. Mark Dion's travel diary and reproductions of letters and texts about the Bartram's Garden and its people make this book a treasure trove of exploration.