Le jardin de la connaissance, part of the Jardin de Métis, in Gaspésie.
I mentioned last week that there is a very real affinity between gardening and literature. More specifically, I think this affinity is rich in potential and can express itself in a variety of curious guises. For instance, I recently learned that Le Jardin de Métis (The Redford Gardens), in the Gaspésie peninsula in Eastern Québec, has been hosting something called Le jardin de la conaissance (“The Garden of Knowledge”, or “The Garden of Cognition”). Designed by Berlin architect Thilo Folkerts and graphic Canadian artist Rodney Latourelle (of 100landschaftsarchitektur), the space employs used books in order to create walls, tables, and even floors — outside and surrounded by trees.
Visitors to the garden are invited to sit and step on the books, or pick them up and read them, if they find something that interests them.
In creating the space, the designers also had mushrooms spores placed between the pages of the books in order to speed up the process of decomposition. Thereby, this special garden becomes an embodiment of our relationship with books and knowledge, and an impressive representation of the process of communicating knowledge through books. The woods all around the Jardin de la connaissance portray what books are physically made of, where they come from, and the ground underneath the piles of books portrays what the books become when they decompose, drawing a full circle. The garden also emphasizes the parallel between the construct of intellectual knowledgeacquired from books, and the more practical knowledge that can be gained from nature itself. It’s a provocative, fascinating idea, and it looks amazing visually.
Various types of mushroom spores have been inserted into the books in order to speed up the process of decomposition.
However, according to an article in Cyberpresse, the garden of knowledge has also garnered some criticism. The director of the school board that donated the books used in the garden eventually spoke up against “hateful” use of books in the project, stating that he hadn’t known what would be done with them when they were given away. Others were shocked to find that the books used in the gardens weren’t only one-time bestsellers or dated schoolbooks bound to end up as pulp; there are also literary works from major Québecois writers. The director of the l’Association des libraires du Québec (the Québec Booksellers Association), on the contrary, finds that the garden is not at all disrespectful to books: “After having been the medium for the transfer of knowledge, the books return to the earth to feed it and make sure more books are published.” A specialist in social media and technology, Nadio Seraiocco, notes that the controversy which has arisen over this project proves that, despite the rise of electronic books, people are still emotionally attached to books as a symbol.
