The Sprig of Thyme: Ebba Bohlin meets the collections of the Hagströmer Library
Hagströmer Library presents "The Sprig of Thyme", an exhibition in which artist Ebba Bohlin explores ethnobotany – the relationship between humans and the plant world. In new works in film, photography, sculpture and installation, Bohlin's artistry meets the library's extensive collections of botanical works from the 1480s onwards.
Hagströmer Library, Karolinska Institutet, 16 October 2025 - 18 February 2026

During 2024-25, Bohlin has worked with works from the Hagströmer Library's unique collections and carried out what she calls botanical self-reflections – an artistic journey that makes plant science visible as an important part of both science and culture. The works are presented together with a selection of original works from the library's botanical collections. The relationship between humans and plants was once existentially necessary for survival – as medicine and food, but also deeply embedded in culture. That dependence is just as absolute today. Without the ecosystem of the plant kingdom, the conditions for human life on Earth would collapse.
Ebba Bohlin (1976) is educated at Konstfack and lives in Stockholm. She works with installations where spatiality and bodily experiences are central. Bohlin shows a sensitivity to the material's inherent possibilities for change – regardless of whether it is taken from language, nature or her own body. The visual overwhelming has been a central element in Bohlin's conceptually driven artistry since the blue scaffolding "Bauwerk I" was shown at Konstfack's graduation exhibition in 2008. She works with both exhibitions and large-scale permanent works in public environments, such as "Brunkeberg's memory" at the entrance to Kulturhuset Stadsteatern in Stockholm and "Spridningsvägar" at Tomteboda (2022).
In the spring of 2025, she completed a work stay at the San Michele Foundation in Capri, which became an important part of the research work for this exhibition.
Link
Hagströmerbiblioteket
Contact person
Anna Lantz hagstromerlibrary@ki.se
08-524-86828
Planning your visit
The exhibition can only be visited by appointment, due to limitations on the number of visitors that can be in the library at one time. We recommend that you book your visit on the following dates and times in 2025, when guided tours focusing on the exhibition will be organized free of charge:
22 oktober kl 12-13
4 november kl 12-13, 16.30-17.30
20 november kl 16.30-17.30
Welcome to book your visit via e-mail to: hagstromerlibrary@ki.se

Previous Exhibitions at the Hagströmer Library
Photo: N/ALivets skörhet. Kunskap om foster och förlossningar under 500 år
Photo: Svante LarssonCaput Folium - Exhibition by Timo Menke
Exhibition from October 2023 - January 2024
Photo: N/AToxic Transits Exhibition - Spring 2024
Photo: N/AVitreous Bodies. Exhibition at The Hagströmer Library.
New Exhibition at The Hagströmer Medico-Historical Library, 31 May – 30 September 2022.
Photo: Anna LantzExhibition: Dürer to Daumier - Artists of Science in the Collections of the Hagströmer Library
New special exhibition opens October 2021 at The Hagströmer Library.
Photo: Anna LantzJonas Falck - among gravel and horizons - New exhibition at the Hagströmer Library
The Hagströmer Library 10 October 2022 – Spring 2023
