#basiairland

Basia Irland’s Ice Books are for rivers and stream ecosystems, not for libraries (water and libraries don’t mix well.)

Basia Irland (b. 1946) works with communities to foster collaborations – with rivers and with each other. In her Ice Receding/Books Reseeding, she creates ice sculptures in the shape of books, filling the ice with local riparian seeds selected in consultation with botanists and stream ecologists for each specific riparian zone. She then releases these seed-laden ephemeral ice sculptures into rivers.  

The Ice Books are hand-carved ice sculptures, some weighing over 300-pounds. They emphasize the necessity of communal effort, scientific knowledge, and artistic expression to focus on complex issues of climate disruption and watershed restoration. The ephemeral sculptures are launched into waterways during community events, and sometimes from a flotilla of kayaks. As the ice melts the seeds are released to help repair nearby riverbanks. The first Ice Book was created for an exhibition in Boulder, Colorado, to make visible the fact that the Arapaho Glacier is melting, as are glaciers around the world.

Irland writes, “When an ecosystem is restored and the plants grow along the riverbanks they give back to us by helping sequester carbon, mitigating floods and drought, pollinating other plants, dispersing seeds, holding the banks in place (slowing erosion), creating soil regeneration and preservation, acting as filters for pollutants and debris, supplying leaf-litter (for food and habitat), promoting aesthetic pleasure, and providing shelter/shade for riverside organisms including humans.” 

June is also National River Month.

Basia Irland is an American artist, environmental activist, writer, and educator whose work and career focus on rivers and watersheds, water scarcity, climate change, ecological restoration and waterborne diseases.

In “What Rivers Know: Listening to the Voices of Global Waterways,” Irland asks, “What if rivers could talk and tell their stories?” and writes their stories as the voice of a river. Below text is one example from the publication, and the last image is the accompanying image for this river.

“According to geologists, I am one of the oldest rivers in the world, having flowed for millions of years. As an old-timer, I have a low gradient with slow erosion, whereas younger cousins flow more quickly, tumbling down to the sea carrying lots of sediment. My waters flow south to north for 218 miles and helped shape the Appalachian Mountains. I am the French Broad River, named by French settlers in the region centuries ago at a time when I was one of the two broad rivers in western North Carolina.

The Cherokee have a variety of names for me: Agiqua in the mountains, Zilicoah above Asheville, and Tahkeeosteh after Asheville. As with most indigenous groups around the world, the Cherokee go to the river to pray and perform submergence ceremonies. The phrase “going to water” in the Cherokee language is synonymous with the words for bathing and submerging. Historically, the tribe recognized my floods as a natural part of any river’s cycle and did not attempt to dam or divert my waters. They knew, too, that I brought rich soil for agriculture when I flooded, and fresh sand for floors of their dwellings.” (from “What Rivers Know” – p.57)

Irland, Basia, Lucy R. Lippard, and Sandra Postel. 2025. What Rivers Know : Listening to the Voices of Global Waterways. First edition. Texas A&M University Press.