Bachelors: The Story of a Botanical Migration by Donata Lazzarini is now available from Palermo Publishing.

Developed from Lazzarini’s research around Encephalartos woodii—a plant species known only through male specimens—the book unfolds as an artistic and botanical investigation into extinction, reproduction, migration, hybridisation, and the continuity of life. Taking this extraordinary plant as its point of departure, the project traces the complex histories of botanical circulation, conservation, and human intervention that have shaped its survival.

Moving between scientific research, visual practice, archival material, and speculative thinking, Bachelors reflects on conservation and biodiversity while questioning what it means for a species to survive when its natural reproductive future has disappeared. The book considers survival not as a fixed condition, but as an ongoing process shaped by care, displacement, adaptation, and the possibilities opened by both scientific and artistic imagination.

Through Lazzarini’s work, the story of Encephalartos woodii becomes a broader reflection on fragility and resilience, on the ways in which plants migrate across territories and institutions, and on the relationships between human actions and the preservation of living systems.

Contributions by
Michelangelo Gruttadauria · Rosario Schicchi · Maria Rosa Sossai · Donata Lazzarini · John Donaldson · Paul Mills · Marco Senaldi · Laura Cinti · Patrick Griffith · Ben Novak · Telmo Pievani · Barbara Baldan · Manlio Speciale · Jens-Christian Svenning · Giuseppina Pisciotta Tosini · Federico Lucariello · Caterina Strafalaci

Artwork by Donata Lazzarini
Curated by Maria Rosa Sossai
Translations Dominic McElwee
Project editor Michela Palermo
Graphic design intern Alexandra Koleva

Published by Palermo Publishing in collaboration with SIMUA / Orto Botanico di Palermo.

The publication is supported by PAC2025 – Piano per l’Arte Contemporanea, promoted by the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Italian Ministry of Culture.

Now available.