It was always a talking point when people came over, but a recurring theme was that someone somewhere once designed the bottle. Someone had chosen the typeface, written the label and decided how a product called Heroin should be presented to the world.

And this is what gave me the idea for The Apothecary Cabinet.

I began looking for other substances with similarly complicated histories, and it was a fascinating journey. I found an old advertisement for the drug Pervitin (aka crystal meth) that roughly translated as “a stimulant for the mind and circulation”. That's one way of putting it...

I want to stress that I am in no way glamourising these drugs and poisons. In fact, my aim was to take away the "drugs are cool" rock and roll elements entirely. Stripping it back to a product-design study achieves this, and it also acts as a sobering reminder that these drugs didn't just appear out of nowhere.

I completely get that The Apothecary Cabinet isn't going to be for everyone, but that is kind of the point. These prints offer a fascinating glimpse into the past and are great to blend in with a more conventional collection, even if it's just to witness a first-time observer do that delicious double-take when they realise what it is they are looking at.

Kevin Baxter
London
August 2026