In a thoughtful creative project that bridges art, nostalgia, and shifting communication norms, UK-based paper artist Gillian Taylor has crafted a unique hanging daisy art installation using letters collected during the final days of public letter delivery from Denmark’s national postal operator PostNord. The exhibition, titled *Med Venlig Hilsen* — Danish for “With Kind Regards” — is currently hosted at the Thelma Hulbert Gallery in Honiton, southwest England, bringing together contributions from friends, strangers, and letter lovers across two countries.
Taylor, who hails from Cockwood, Devon, has longstanding connections to Denmark, where she spent a significant portion of her career. Her project drew submissions from dozens of participants: Danish close friends who shared her fondness for handwritten correspondence, as well as complete strangers who jumped at the chance to contribute personal memories of receiving and opening handwritten letters. Many contributors took the opportunity to send their letters as a deliberate act of preserving the dying tradition, even adding their own small artworks to the envelopes and using up old collections of postage stamps that would otherwise go unused.
The end of letter delivery in Denmark marks a major milestone in global digital adoption. In 2025, PostNord announced it would cease all residential and commercial letter delivery services starting that December, shifting its entire operational focus to parcel delivery. The company justified the change by noting Denmark has ranked among the world’s most digitally advanced nations for years, with email and instant messaging apps now dominating personal and professional communication far more than traditional posted letters. The transition was so abrupt that one of Taylor’s friends attempting to mail her a letter on the official final day discovered the local public post box had already been removed. They ultimately had to route the letter via a courier through Austria, a journey that took two full months to reach Taylor.
When assembling the installation, Taylor transformed the submitted correspondence into delicate hanging daisies: the postage stamps from each letter form the bright central core of each flower, while cut-up pieces of the letters and their envelopes make up the soft petals. Taylor explained her choice of the daisy was twofold: not only is it the official national flower of Denmark, but it also carries a universal symbolism of hope that fits the project’s tone.
Reflecting on the exhibition’s broader message, Taylor noted that the project has already sparked renewed interest in handwritten correspondence among attendees and contributors. “Lots of people have gone away and written letters as a result of this because they realised that if we don’t use our own postal service then we might lose it as well,” she said. Taylor added that while the end of Denmark’s national letter service feels like a mournful turning point, she wanted the installation to carry an optimistic message. “This project has made me think about the way I communicate with old friends,” she said. “Although this is a really sad moment, I’m an optimistic person and I like to offer that hope for the future — that we will return to those more personal ways of communicating.”