Simone Kappeler has spent over half a century experimenting with analog apparatus and imaging processes. Her poetically transformed cyanotypes, X-rays, infrared prints, and Polaroids explore the often-overlooked microcosm of grasses, wildflowers, and butterflies in the meadows of eastern Switzerland.
One theme runs through her work: plants and their visitors, the butterflies. Thirty-five years ago, she photographed butterflies and pupae in the studio with a large-format camera in exquisite detail, and X-rayed plants in a hospital setting to see both onto and through them. Later, infrared film revealed colors invisible to the human eye—since insects perceive flowers differently than humans, whose vision spans only 390 to 780 nanometers. Each technique served to uncover a new facet of plant life, with scientific inquiry as both starting point and inspiration.
In recent years, she has turned increasingly to Polaroid film, having special close-up lenses ground for her cameras; the chemical process fuses directly with the image carrier, often yielding intriguing deviations. She has also made cyanotypes outdoors, recording sunlit plants on self-coated paper up to 80 × 60 cm, capturing subtle wind movement and layered blue tones. Special Asian mitsumata papers from Paris are hand-coated in darkness with an iron-oxide chemical mix to produce this luminous deep blue.
The book Handwurz und Zittergras unfolds as a sequenced image publication in eleven self-contained chapters, each printed on paper matched to its technique—matte watercolor paper for cyanotypes, satin gloss-lacquered paper for Polaroids, thin translucent paper for X-rays, baryta gloss for black-and-white prints—creating a richly tactile, sensory experience. The cover is bound in iridescent linen, its threads shifting color with light and angle.
The publication accompanies the exhibition Simone Kappeler – nature vivante, which opened September 13, 2026, at Kunstmuseum Thurgau.
Published with the generous support of Thurgau Lotteriefonds, Pro Helvetia – Swiss Arts Council, Kulturpool Regio Frauenfeld, Stadt Frauenfeld, Stiftung für Ostschweizer Kunstschaffen, TKB Jubiläums-Stiftung and Thurgauische Kulturstiftung Ottoberg.
