A history of soil and soil supplement usage in Southern Humboldt pot-growing.
dirt opens with the words “illicit marijuana farms in the fertile hills around Garberville”, enlarged directly from a microfilm copy of a front-page San Francisco Chronicle article dated August 24, 1977, titled “$1 Million Raid of Humboldt Pot Farms”, one of the first two major media accounts of Northern California marijuana production.

The plastic bags used for the pages of dirt map a history of soil and soil supplement usage over the last 40 years of Southern Humboldt pot-growing. The book’s front canvas cover and all its printed pages (except one) are marked by sweeping coils of paint—white on the cover, gray on the pages—that pass across and around the book’s gathered artifacts and writings. Their loose arches echo assorted schematic plans for pot-garden irrigation in drawings taken from a pot-growing family’s notebooks (reproduced throughout dirt). The tent canvas of the front and back covers was also scavenged from Southern Humboldt pot-growing scenes. Another direct material quotation from the pot-growing life is the piece of pond-liner set into the back cover that previously had pot plants growing on it.

Self-adhesive matte paper, varnished with UV-blocking clear matte acrylic and attached to selected soil and soil supplement bags split into bi-folds and side-stitched. The factory-printed surfaces of these bags—backs and fronts—also function as pages, displaying promotional artwork and product information. Hand-bound to ⅜” rusted rebar spine attached by brass posts to covers of scavenged tent canvas and pond liner hemmed with baling wire. Bags, canvas, and pond liner came from Humboldt County, California marijuana growing operations between 2007 and 2010. The first 30 books are issued in a 31 ½ x 24 ¾ x 2″ wood and canvas box.

Book design and principal text: Scott Holmquist.
Page and text design: Scott Holmquist, Holley Pering, and Richard Tacey.
Binding: Blake Reagan, Holley Pering, Erik Horvath, and Tara Smith.