Nebula Gallery Presents: Dangerous Beauty

About

Dangerous Beauty explores the striking and often deceptive allure of poisonous plants through historical botanical illustration. Drawn from rare books and medical botany texts found in the Louise B. Belsterling Botanical Collection, this exhibition highlights species once valued for beauty, medicine, and ritual use—and at times intentionally misused, even when their dangers were known.

From the delicate bells of foxglove to the dark berries of deadly nightshade, these plants reveal a long history of experimentation, misidentification, and discovery. Detailed botanical illustrations highlight both the beauty and the danger of these plants. Presented during the fall, the exhibition draws on what might be called the plant world’s own spooky season, when familiar forms take on darker meanings and hidden risks come into focus.

The exhibition cases extend this theme beyond plants themselves. On view are 19th‑century books bound in vivid green covers now suspected to contain arsenic‑based pigments. Once fashionable and eye‑catching, these bindings represent another form of dangerous beauty, objects prized for their appearance, yet carrying risks that were poorly understood at the time.

Visitors who wish to explore this topic further are invited to join Ye Olde Book Club on 10/27/2026, in Special Collections, for a discussion of The Arsenic Century: How Victorian Britain Was Poisoned at Home, Work, and Play. Additional details are available at: