The Little Jungle Book
Linda Connor & Maria Sibylla Merian

“This little book keeps revealing and unlocking so many uncanny elements. My fear and revulsion of insects drew me in, but it was the jungle and its fecundity and rank physicality that motivated the diversity of collage elements: butterflies, snakes, anatomical illustrations and more. I went about this process intuitively and continue to find so much richness to be discovered.” _ Linda Connor

This artist book was created by photographer Linda Connor through the addition of collage work to the original Das kleine Buch der Tropenwunder (The Little Book of Tropical Wonders, 1954), which features illustrations by German naturalist, entomologist, and illustrator Maria Sibylla Merian. Linda Connor’s playful and bizarre imaginative world is superimposed upon Merian’s descriptive illustrations of plants and insects. Her bold and free collages, which frolic with or crash into the flora and fauna drawn by Merian, extend beyond observation and understanding into the instinctive realm of sensation and imagination. The untamed energy and surreal world we have never encountered are reopened through the encounter between 17th-century European artist Maria Sibylla Merian and 21st-century American artist Linda Connor. The mystery of nature, the paradox of life and death, and the adventurous spirit of artists who open up unknown worlds — despite all odds — have transcended time and place to become a small book for us, here and now.

This book, created in homage to Linda Connor’s collage book, strives to faithfully reproduce the expressive form of the original. While the layered textures of hand-cut paper—one of the collage book’s key charms—could not be replicated, each pop-up element was carefully hand-assembled to offer readers an experience as close to the original as possible. Searching each printed page to spot Linda’s collages becomes a delightful journey into the depth of the book.


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Limited Edition, 500 copies
2025
11.7 × 18 cm
88 pages
Hardcover / Handmade Pop-ups
ISBN 978-89-97605-75-0

* This book was produced through offset printing and handcrafting by Datz Books.

* Text by Linda Connor
* Book Production by Lumiprintec
* Hand-assembled Junglye Lim