Heteroptera (Hardcover)

~ Cornelia Hesse-Honegger (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Since 1987, drawing and painting directly from nature, Cornelia Hesse-Honegger has fought a one-woman campaign against the scientific establishment to show that artificial radioactivity, whether at high or low levels of fallout, is mutilating the insect and plant life that relate directly to genetic damage sustained by humans living under the same conditions. Following the path of the fallout from the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl in the Ukraine in 1986, she has collected bug and leaf specimens from sites in Sweden, Switzerland, and around the Chernobyl power plant itself. She has also studied insect and plant life around Sellafield in England, and at Three Mile Island in the United States. In every case, she has produced exquisite watercolors and drawings which record the malformations and growths she has found in meticulous detail, and the beauty of her art work only makes our understanding of the damage more acute. This is a brave and deeply political book which should be read by anyone concerned with the future development of life on the planet from the smallest bug in the garden to our children, and to their children after them.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 310 pages
• Publisher: Scalo Publishers; illustrated edition edition (February 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 3908247314
• ISBN-13: 978-3908247319
• Product Dimensions: 12.2 x 9.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 1.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #522,966 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Very Strange..., May 26, 2007

By	Lorie Schinko (Montreal) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book contains well drawn images of insects that were exposed to nuclear disasters like Chernoyble.It is a bit like Audubon,with an outsider's feel to it.Some frightening images of what happens to insects that try to adapt to nuclear emmissions/disasters.It is an important record,visually speaking,but I am not sure where this information will go in time.I wanted a book with illustrations of insects,only some of the illustrations have insects with 3 eyes,or horrible growths on some part of the exoskeletel structures,due to nuclear emmissions,etc.
Nothing "wrong"with the book...It is a book about what goes wrong when makind messes about with the free will to do whatever on the planet as he/she pleases,and the results of human arrogance as pictured by the artist in personal recordings of nature adapting to (un)natural disasters.It was not what I expected.I do not think I understood the meaning of heteroptera when I purchased it.
I was dissappointed with this book when I got it,but now,3 years later,I am still looking at it,and I will keep it in my personal library for as long as I am fascinated with it.
I can't seem to edit the star rating on site,but I give this book a 4 star rating.