Ann Shelton, jane says

jane says is a photographic series by Ann Shelton that centres on plants historically associated with herbal knowledge around fertility, menstruation and abortion. The works depict herbs and flowers such as peony, rue, sage and valerian — plants that appear in traditional recipes for tonics and tinctures used in attempts to control conception or bring on menstruation. Visually, the images draw on the Japanese tradition of ikebana, which Shelton studied, adopting its careful structure and sense of compositional control. Their highly saturated, meticulously staged aesthetic also reflects Shelton’s childhood memories of small-town flower-arranging competitions, using the visual language of floral display to draw viewers into the deeper historical research underpinning the work.

Historically, many Western medical traditions incorporated herbal practices that enabled women to manage aspects of their reproductive health. Much of this knowledge circulated informally — shared privately and often covertly — particularly in societies where reproductive autonomy was restricted. Shelton began researching this material after encountering the work of New Zealand feminist historian Margaret Sparrow, whose research into abortion during the colonial period revealed the significant risks women faced when relying on incomplete or dangerous information about abortifacient plants. In jane says, these carefully constructed photographs form a kind of botanical index — a photographic garden of plants that sit at the intersection of knowledge, secrecy and power, inviting viewers to reflect on the histories of reproductive control and the fragile transmission of this knowledge over time.