Pleasure Garden – Issue 7

Pleasure Garden Issue 7 (Out of the blue/Into the blue) is available now at LOREM (not Ipsum). Issue 7 comes out of the blue, as it also dives into the beautiful blue, looking at our connection with water. Pleasure Garden on Sea plots the course of the pleasure garden as it manifests its ultimate incarnation on the coast. Jo Metson Scott documents part of this architectural legacy in her tour of British seaside piers, while Hugo MacDonald contemplates the return to favour of life beside the seaside in ‘The Constant Sea’.

We consider the possibility that every man is an island, with a look at poet and gardener Ian Hamilton Finlay and his garden at Little Sparta. Alison Morris explores Venice’s marriage to the sea in the annual celebrations of the Festa della Sensa, Eddie Wrey visits Djibouti in ‘The Lake which is also a Desert’, Rosalind Jana talks to gardener Alys Fowler on the Birmingham canals and Ben Weller and Linda Brownlee cross the water to visit two rocky island gardens.

The issue takes a river trip in India and examines the subjects of dazzle ships, queer sailors and fountains. With photography from Lucie Rox, Richard Demarco, Chloé Le Drezen, Laura Coulson and more…

Taking inspiration from the pleasure gardens of 18th century London the Pleasure Garden magazine engages its public with an array of attractions – ranging from the past to the present, the sedate to the salacious. Here we step away from the practicalities of the garden instead placing it within a wider cultural context. The pleasure garden was always a place to escape to – a fantasy in a garden, filled with art, music, fashion, society and sex. It is this mix that we transport to the printed pages of Pleasure Garden magazine. The Garden Edit takes a modern approach to gardening and plants. Adopting a unique point of view that merges functionality, design and craftsmanship – we bring together a curated selection of garden-related products from internationally recognised and emerging designers. Working with photographers and writers we also document the garden through a contemporary lens, showcasing interesting figures and spaces within the botanical world.

Details: Pleasure Garden – Issue 7

210 pages, 36 x 28 cm, Softcover, 1.5 kg