Under KVW Publications, artist and editor Katrina Vera Wong publishes a series of pocket guides to plant families, each featuring ten works by ten artists on ten plants. The sixth issue covers the nightshade family, Solanaceae, in a wrapped accordion fold designed to be both beautiful and educational.
Katrina Vera Wong used to write about sciart for a science publication and noticed a gap: plant art that wasn’t botanical illustration rarely received any attention. Around the same time she started making zines and collecting pocket field guides, and the format revealed itself. The result is a bunch of, a series of pocket sciart guides to plant families that has now reached its sixth issue.
Each issue brings together ten works by ten artists on ten plants from the same family, selected for diversity of both plant species and artistic medium. The wrapped accordion fold format dictates how works are grouped, and every detail is considered: scientific names in labels, quotes from published research papers, floriography, and mini games give the guides an educational thread alongside the art. The logo changes with each issue, its botanical elements shifting to reflect the featured plant family, inspired by Wong’s practice of ikebana. The full logo takes after a moribana arrangement; the abbreviated logo after a nageire. Every cover contains an easter egg, a tiny graphic of a plant from the next issue’s family hidden within the design.
Issue six, a bunch of Solanaceae, covers the nightshade family, with works by Erin Szturm, Antonio Leavey, Edie Skeard, Paulina Odeth, Vanessa Willms-Wong, Jade Francesca Bartlett, Wren Christianson, Cassio, Donia Liu Neekman and Allison Kiernan. The previous issue’s easter egg, a tiny Angel’s Trumpet flower, led here, and the Angel’s Trumpet appears again in this issue’s logo. Wong publishes one to two issues per year, with submissions arriving from around the world.
“I wouldn’t be able to do this project if it wasn’t for all the artists who make the most incredible plant art,” she says. “They have my undying gratitude and love. Better to bloom as a bunch.”
Katrina Vera Wong is an artist, writer, editor and publisher based in Canada.
Website: abunchofguide.com Instagram: @abunchofguide
a bunch of Solanaceae, Issue 6, 2025. Pocket sciart guide, wrapped accordion fold. Contributing artists: Erin Szturm, Antonio Leavey, Edie Skeard, Paulina Odeth, Vanessa Willms-Wong, Jade Francesca Bartlett, Wren Christianson, Cassio, Donia Liu Neekman, Allison Kiernan. Photos: KVW.
