Tracking the Western Leopard Toad (2009) is a monograph commissioned by Moleskine and was donated to their literacy project, Lettera27. The artist’s book is exhibited internationally as digital archive and physical book under the rubric of AtWork27. My contribution is both formal documentation and loose interpretation of scientists searching for Western Leopard Toads (Amietophrynus pantherinus). Individuals were fitted with radio transmitters at breeding sites in the Cape peninsula, and these had to be removed once their location was data-captured. Western Leopard Toads are found in urban, residential areas in Cape Town and are a critically endangered species. The toads garnered support from public lobbyists, for instance the Noordhoek residents’ group, the ToadNUTS, who would install road signs and patrol the roads during breeding season to prevent toad road deaths. The illustrated notebook intermeshed anecdotal, scientific and biographical evidence in a sketchy narrative, thus the reader/viewer has to interpret and sift through fragmented data.

View the monograph on the AtWork online archive.

The physical books and digital archive was exhibited at Afropixel 3 festival, Institut Française de Dakar, Galerie le Manège, Dakar during Dak’Art 2012; the Bulgarian Institute for Culture, Hamburg; Kunstverein, Milan; and Donwahi Foundation for Contemporary Art, Abidjan. The digital archive continues to expand by means of new chapters.