As Dr Charlie Lee-Potter writes of her RCA installation, "milk is the unifying material in the works: laser-etched and used as paper; desiccated and layered as bed linen; and poured into bottles to expose the punitive methods once used to control women by the medical profession". This is A Week's Supply, with 42 pints of milk, the weekly dose force-fed to "clever women judged to be over-stimulated by thinking too much", a treatment devised by Silas Weir Mitchell whose grotesque instructions, described in his 1877 book, are laser-etched on the cabinet's doors.

This week on the Post we have the recent work of Dr Charlie Lee-Potter (who, among many other accomplishments, wrote the Afterword for Effi Briest). Not only does Charlie have a literary PhD, she has also just gained a PhD from the Royal College of Art following her successful viva and show last week. The latter, 'Out of the Scriptorium', was filled with exquisite objects made by Charlie and wove a range of historical, literary and textile references together with Charlie's own villanelles into a 'new, ambiguous, visual fable'. This is For Want of Light and Space: Maggie's Hair: Maggie Tulliver in The Mill on the Floss cuts her hair to look studious, hoping this will qualify her for the education she has been denied. Here the crocheted paper work is trapped and distorted by a bookbinder's frame.

In the early part of her career, Mary Fedden (1915-2012) produced beautiful, formally arranged flower pieces such as this, Flowers 1 (1948, RWA). As her biographer, Christopher Andreae writes, "part of the appeal of her work lies in its apparent simplicity coupled with its exquisite execution, anchored in the long pictorial tradition of Dutch still life and underpinned by her early formation at the Slade School of Art".

Striped Lily (1946) by Gerald Cooper (1898-1975) was one of the series of School Prints produced in the 1940s, and is still available. Cooper was noted for his meticulously painted flowers in the manner of the Dutch Old Masters. The striped lily is Hippeastrum striatum; modern amaryllis varieties have equally eye-catching flowers and the bulbs are easy to grow indoors in winter.

The Dutch style of flower painting persisted long after the seventeenth century. This is Flowers (1840s, Norfolk Museums) by Emily Stannard (1803-1885) who was associated with the Norwich School and was greatly influenced by the Dutch masters and by Jan van Huysum's paintings in particular. She is regarded as one of the finest female still life artists of her time.

Continuing the theme of floral paintings in the C17 Dutch style, this is the gloriously vibrant Spray of tulips, everlasting pea, mild rose and hibiscus (1820, Fitzwilliam) by James Holland (1799-1870). Holland worked in Davenport Pottery for seven years from the of twelve painting flowers on pottery and porcelain, a training which is reflected in his flower paintings. The modern reliable, disease-free versions of the 'broken' (ie striped or streaked) tulips are Rembrandt tulips.

One part of the Glenn Ligon exhibition at The Fitzwilliam in Cambridge is a room full of stunning flower paintings, mostly Dutch, mostly C17th. They are a timely reminder that it is now bulb-planting season; old habits die hard, but most spring bulbs are best planted later than they once were. Even daffodils, traditionally planted in September, will thrive when planted now - and can still be bought from websites such as Gee Tee Bulbs and Peter Nyssen. This is Still Life with Flowers (c1604, Fitzwilliam) by George Flegel  (1666-1738) with pale, delicate narcissi.