The Magnolia Grows at Night

The Magnolia Grows at Night is drawn from a diary Fransisca Angela kept while making a film of the same title. The work was inspired by the friendship and letters between her oma and a Dutch nun who did missionary work in the Dutch East Indies. A decade after her oma’s death, Fransisca traced the address in Maastricht that led her to a convent, where a community of Indonesian nuns care for elderly Dutch nuns. A large magnolia tree stood inside the convent’s garden, witnessing the care duties and devoted lives these women have chosen to live. The artist book combines text in the form of prose, poetry, and fragments alongside archival images, and photograms of the magnolia petals from the convent’s garden.