On 22 November 2018 the launch of this special issue of Third Text, The Wretched Earth: Botanical Conflicts and Artistic Interventions took place at The Showroom, with a conversation between editors Ros Gray and Shela Sheikh chaired by the Showroom Director Elvira Dyangani Ose.

The Wretched Earth: Botanical Conflicts and Artistic Interventions presents new research on contemporary art practices that both explore and intervene in the cultures, politics and systems of representation generated through human interaction with the soil.