With Gardens is a poem in the form of an artist’s book that examines ideas of absence and fragmentation alongside philosophies of nature and horticulture, problems of conception and evocation, figures of speech, and traditions of commonplacing, particularly in relation to ideas of sylva (‘forests’ of collected text), and florilegia (literary ‘gatherings of flowers’).

The tripartite folding structure of With Gardens displays its poetic text alongside photographs of public and private gardens across the UK. The side sections of the book open out to reveal miniature thickets of foliage and garden imagery, sometimes with botanical labelling.

By interrelating forms of thought and forms of gardens, this book participates in the horticultural tradition of creating philosophy gardens: gardens that have symbolic, sacred, poetic, and philosophical meanings.

Bordered by images of foliage, garden features, and plantlife, the poetic text of With Gardens treats the book itself as a garden environment, where its found, fragmented, abstracted language can be displayed, nurtured, and propagated.