The Work of Worms

Amy Stewart’s book The Earth Moved (2004).
Though small, spineless, and slimy, worms play an indispensable role in many ecosystems. The organisms’ work continually turning soil—breaking down organic matter, turning it into fertilizer, and actively resisting being extracted from the dirt—galvanizes British sculptor Alice Channer, who sees their embeddedness in their material surroundings and their continual, collective processing of them, as analogous to the work of an art