The Value of Ferns

Taiwan is home to over 600 species of indigenous ferns, which has earned it the title “The Kingdom of Ferns”. The booklet investigates ten of Taiwan’s extremely rare ferns, adding information on the dangers they are facing due to which they have become rare. In commemoration of the value that ferns have brought to Taiwan’s social ecology, they were integrated into high symbolic meaning in the form of “securities” – visually expressed through an intricate collection of banknotes. Each of these banknotes is elaborately designed featuring the necessary insignia including figures, watermarks, state information and the ornamental guilloche patterns, and above all, elaborately crafted illustrations of the individual ferns. Clearly distinguishable through strong colours and compiled in transparent pockets set against a black background, they embody an unmistakable design style and carefully thought-out overall concept that aims at conveying the idea that thus ferns, in analogy to banknotes in circulation, are increasingly perceived as something valuable in need of protection.