CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 7/18/2023

A vibrant new history of color dye, told via Flora, Fauna, Fungi and Fossil Fuels

Featured spreads are from In Pursuit of Color, an engaging study of the origins of the world’s most important dies. Beautifully printed with three different-colored covers (red, blue and yellow) and featuring a bound-in supplement on dyeing principles and procedures, it tells the history and origins of some of the world’s most famous dyes via four categories: Flora, Fauna, Fungi and Fossil Fuels. “Like textiles, dyes are everywhere, speaking to us in ways we take for granted,” author Lauren MacDonald writes. “When we see a person dressed in teal-green scrubs we know they’re likely a nurse or doctor; while police uniforms are so strongly associated with the color navy that cops are often referred to as the ‘boys in blue.’ We have a cultural understanding of what colors mean, whether it’s on our clothes, in the decor of our homes, or out in the streets. But most of us don’t know how our plump sofa cushions were made green, or why our jeans turn that perfect shade of faded blue.”