A Tree: A Reader on Arboreal Kinship

by Marjolein Van Der Loo (Editor)

Genres: Nonfiction, Art

128 pages, Paperback

Published July 15, 2025

Reviews

[Nada · Rating 5 out of 5]

a booklet really, but I would love to hear more 3

[aimilina · Rating 5 out of 5]

transcendental! a thoughtful, scientific and emotive selection of poems, prose, story and article, permeated throughout by beautiful art and photography of art, all on the subject of trees 🌲 and our connection to them as relatives

[Olivia Schurr-Rippe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved. The connection between humans and plants has never been so plainly obvious and universal.

[Nic Maltrotti · Rating 5 out of 5]

my life’s goal is arboreal kinship

[Namita · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mind bending. Also delighted when the sun hit my page and I saw that the ink wasn’t just black

Some of the exhibit documentation was hard to parse

[R1CEC4KE · Rating 2 out of 5]

To begin, what entices: this is a beautifully designed book. The slow encroachment of images in the visual interstices, slowly layering higher and higher in stunning two-page spreads, really gives the impression of a forest floor collecting sheets of leaves, mulch, compost, providing all manner of nourishment to what grows from (under)ground to canopy. There were also a number of really inspiring entries: particularly those speculative texts on arboreal communication (the entry on therolinguistics and the one on primordeal tongues), the translation of Anne Richter's short story The Sleep of Plants, the sonic piece A Day in The Life of A Tree, and the closing poem. Each in their own way offered a troubling account of the "Arboreal Kinship" promised in the book's subtitle, without regurgitating now hackneyed tropes and cliches about tree-being and becoming.

To continue, what averts: hinted by my above gesture towards cliche, many of the texts here fall into this category. Or, if they do not, they broach an interesting idea and then sever it at the root before it is allowed to grow (most of the entries in this compact book are no more than 2 double-sided pages, hardly more than an abstract's length). The collection likewise stultifies the reader who wishes to burrow deeper than the muddied surface-level. One might jokingly reference to Deleuze and Guattari's claim that arbourescent models of thought are intrinsically hierarchical, proposing a central channel of supply through which knowledge must flow, and yet, jokes aside, theyre be right! Despite promising manifold branching paths, lines of flight to escape the centrality of a hierarchical reading, "A Tree," prescriptively reduces each piece before it begins with an array of 'tags' euphemistically termed "knots and nodes": it is beyond me why the editor and designer would want to limit one's reading of a piece to its, say, "speculative" or "decolonial" facets when it may as well have an "ancestral" or "queer" reading available, or one not bound to the small list of available -- and if I may say so, vague and arbitrary -- tags (what distinguishes "embodied" from "sensory"? What destinguishes "decolonial" from "ancestral"? The short descriptions offered really dont do any service to elicidate the differences between these oft-imbricated terms).

So, sadly, this collection is not a recommendation. That said, having peeked ahead at the next issue of the series ("With A Bird," is already on my shelf), I will be continuing with these books as a lot of my gripes with this one seem to be absent from the next issue (the inclusion of longer texts, the removal of the jarring tags, etc). Despite my criticism, I'm looking forward!

[Gabriella]

My stand-out favorite in this collection is "The Sleep of Plants" by Anne Richter (translated by Edward Gauvin). This short piece of fiction was terrific and totally unique; I am already looking for more of her work. However, I also made one bookmark in part of "Everything Goes In Nature: Learnings from the Plant Kingdom" by Celine Baumann, as well as the final page of "Primordial Tongues or the Language of Non-Autonomous Beings" by Karen Lofgren. Seeing as this book accompanies an art exhibit that I never saw or knew about prior to opening this book, I felt that I was missing content beyond the pages. As it is a collection of poetry, photos, essays, both fiction and non-fiction, it is a total mixed bag - thus making it hard to review on a 1-5 star scale.

[Carson m · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first exhibit of this book after the intro states that they used AI, which immediately put a bad taste in my mouth. The book was intriguing, but I can’t stand the use of AI in art, writing, or anything else in that realm. I was surprised too, especially from such a small “do good” type publication group. Starting with a piece that uses AI was rough too, it put me off pretty quickly.

[Melinda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly a wonderful collection of art, literature, photography, and anything really besides these conventions that limit the scope of creativity. From now on, my favourite tree is the Trysting-tree.
"Trysting-tree........ a tree where lovers might meet."

[Philine Fokkema · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gisteren gekocht in het nieuwe instituut. Mooi boek, meer een magazine waardoor het gemakkelijk, snel en vooral ook leuk is om te lezen. Verschillende verhalen en interessante invalshoeken over bomen en onze connectie met de natuur

[Brendan D · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spellbinding.

[Chanel Chapters]

For tree huggers 🌲

[Sini]

recommendation!

[Belen De Bruijn · Rating 3 out of 5]

more plant-based time pls


realllyyy enjoyed the beginning mostly ,, would’ve loved to have seen some of the artworks

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love the choice of orange paper but it’s quite hard to read and images are tiny. Also prefer the writings to be longer.

[abbey lakey · Rating 5 out of 5]

another book in my collection that acts as a beautiful object, as well as being filled with knowledge, poetry and intention