Aedes is the result of two chance encounters (a novel by Pierre Michon and Paul Monnet’s herbarium) that set Barbara Bénédicte Penn on a frantic quest for a Book – primitive and absolute – that would bring together the lost fragments of her own origins. The herbarium, with its plant traces, obsessed the artist and became the unique and precious medium on which she would unfold the phantasmagorias of her memories and her imagination: a “paper sanctuary” where plants, animals and minerals form a living chaos.

Barbara Bénédicte Penn, born in Montreal in 1968, spent her childhood and adolescence in Brittany. She obtained a Master’s degree in Art History from the University of Rennes in 1992, and later trained in photography through various workshops and Masterclasses. She lives and works in Paris as a visual artist and archivist.