Errata Vol. 3 Memory of Water

Errata is a series of botanical-inspired publications celebrating imperfection, improvisation, and happy accidents in both printing and planting.

In this volume, Memory of Water, Justin James King and Leah Koransky focus on desert holly as a lens through which to explore the resilience of life in the arid desert. The book interweaves photographs and handmade ochre pigment washes with botanical and geological still-lifes to create a dynamic field study of a singular species. 

Desert holly, botanically known as Atriplex hymenelytra, is the most drought tolerant member of the saltbush family. Native to the southwestern United States, it survives in extremely arid climates by using the salt in its leaves to extract water from the soil. Its distinct silver foliage, shaped like twisted holly leaves, reflects sunlight and is shed during particularly dry periods, a common survival adaptation among desert flora.

The artists drew inspiration from the Trona Pinnacles, a unique geological site in the California Desert where crumbling tufa spires rise from an ancient lakebed. It is an ethereal landscape, blanketed in a pale and clay-like dust, where—despite the palpable absence of moisture—desert holly flourishes. Its presence in this once-submerged landscape is a testament to nature's adaptability to ecological shifts and a poetic contemplation of the landscape’s memory of water.

Memory of Water includes a risograph-printed insert with botanical illustrations and information printed in metallic gold, echoing the luster of the desert holly plant and ephemerality of the landscape in which it thrives.