Art is a small niche in Canadian book publishing, but there are interesting new possibilities this holiday season for the art lovers in your life.
One of the most sumptuous books about a Canadian artist is David Milne: Modern Painting, published in Britain to accompany an exhibition launched to some critical dismay at the Dulwich Picture Gallery in Britain. The show then travelled to the Vancouver Art Gallery and the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinburg, Ont. If you like Milne’s work, you’ll enjoy this book.
Those who want to delve into the nitty-gritty of a painter’s process may want to check out E.J. Hughes Paints Vancouver Island by Victoria arts writer Robert Amos. Published by TouchWood Editions, it has earned praise from leading Canadian curators like Ian Thom and Charles C. Hill. It features the stories behind each painting, whether the location’s history, or photographs and preliminary sketches from the artist's archives.
A fascinating read is Agnes Martin: Pioneer, Painter, Icon by British writer Henry Martin (no relation to the artist). An in-depth biography of the Saskatchewan-born artist known for creating ephemeral grids, it explores her turbulent life as she rose to fame in the United States. It’s published by Schaffner Press in Arizona.
Goose Lane Editions in Fredericton, N.B., one of Canada’s most active art book publishers, has several interesting books this year.
Probably the highest profile one is Anthropocene, by Toronto photographer Edward Burtynsky and his creative partners, Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas de Pencier. There are two versions with the same title, a smaller paperback co-published by the Art Gallery of Ontario, and a larger hardcover with new poems by Margaret Atwood that's being released by Steidl, a prestigious German publisher. The latter is heading to bookstores now after a delay in the bindery, but looks amazing in its PDF format. The topic is heavy – human destruction of the planet – but the book is important and timely. Burying our heads in the sand isn't going to solve this one.
Also from Goose Lane is At Home: Talks with Canadian Artists About Place and Practice by Lezli Rubin-Kunda, a Canadian-born artist now living in Israel. She looks at how artists navigate their relationship with the environment around them.
For those interested in Inuit art, Goose Lane has two offerings: Nancy Campbell’s book Annie Pootoogook: Cutting Ice and Tunirrusiangit, which translates as “their gifts” and features work by Kenojuak Ashevak and her nephew, Tim Pitsiulak.
Goose Lane’s list also includes a publication about Vancouver-based Indigenous artist Rebecca Belmore, Facing the Monumental, published in conjunction with her recent exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario.
Also look for Ned Pratt: One Wave. The Newfoundland photographer, the son of artists Mary and Christopher Pratt, shoots images that distill landscapes into stark visions of abstract beauty.
Over at Rocky Mountain Books in Victoria, three new photography books also focus on the land.
Calgary photographer George Webber’s latest publication, Alberta Book, features some 200 images of vernacular architecture and fading commercial signage in rural Alberta. Where Rivers Meet: Photographs and Stories from the Bow Valley and Kananaskis Country is by Stephen Legault, a photographer, writer and conservationist based in Canmore, Alta. It looks at the region’s natural history and the impact of development, among other themes. And Dave Brosha’s first book, Northern Light, includes stunning photographs from Greenland, Iceland and the Canadian North.
Figure 1 Publishing, a Vancouver publisher that specializes in art and design, has published several books this year in partnership with leading cultural institutions.
Dana Claxton: Fringing the Cube was released recently to coincide with her show at the Vancouver Art Gallery, which continues to Feb. 3. Another book, Tom Burrows, written by Scott Watson and Ian Wallace, was published in collaboration with the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery at UBC. Burrows, who is based in Vancouver and on Hornby Island, is best known for the monochromatic cast-resin works he's made for the last 45 years.
Figure 1 has also published a book about Laurent Amiot, an 18th-century Quebec silversmith, in conjunction with the National Gallery of Canada, which holds a substantial collection of his work.
Other offerings include Vancouver artist Gathie Falk’s book, Apples, etc.: An Artist’s Memoir, written with Robin Laurence; and Beau Dick: Revolutionary Spirit by Darrin J. Martens, published in collaboration with the Audain Art Museum in Whistler, B.C. Dick was an influential Kwakwaka’wakw artist, activist and teacher who lived in Alert Bay, B.C.
Victoria’s Heritage House has published Sonny Assu: A Selective History. Assu, a Ligwildaxw Kwakwaka’wakw contemporary artist from British Columbia, is known for mixing Indigenous iconography and pop art.
The latest book by Montreal-based arts writer John K. Grande, an occasional contributor to Galleries West, features work by environmental artists around the world. Art, Space, Ecology: Two Views - Twenty Interviews was released by Montreal publisher Black Rose Books and is distributed by the University of Chicago Press.
On the East Coast, Oscar Cahén, more than five years in the making, was published in 2018 as a collaboration between the Cahén Archives and the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton, N.B. The book's 10 contributors, including Galleries West's consulting editor, Jeffrey Spalding, cast light on a founder of the avant-garde group Painters Eleven.
Gaspereau Press in Kentville, N.S., has brought out the first two books in its series, A Gaspereau Field Guide to Canadian Artists. The first, on Newfoundland artist Mary Pratt, was written by Ray Cronin, a former director of the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. The second, Gerald Ferguson: Thinking About Painting, is also by Cronin. Ferguson, a conceptual artist, played an important role in the 1970s helping to transform what was then the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax.
Another book from Gaspereau, Lightfield, considers the work of New Brunswick photographer Thaddeus Holownia, who taught at Mount Allison University in Sackville, N.B.
Academic publishers brought out a number of scholarly titles this year for serious readers. One that caught our eye was I’m Not Myself at All: Women, Art and Subjectivity in Canada, from McGill-Queen’s University Press. Author Kristina Huneault, an art history professor at Concordia University in Montreal, looks at 19th and 20th century art as she considers identity and forces that unsettle and realign the self.
Meanwhile, those interested in grassroots publishing can check out The Grey Guide to Artist-Run Publishing and Circulation, edited by Anne Bertrand, the director of the Artist-Run Centres and Collectives Conference. It’s a useful resource composed of essays, in French and English, mainly by Felicity Tayler, a scholar, artist and librarian.
Looking ahead to 2019, we spotted two more to bookmark. One is People Among the People: The Public Art of Susan Point by Robert D. Watt, published by Figure 1 in collaboration with the UBC Museum of Anthropology. Point has been a driving force in the recent resurgence in Coast Salish art. The other is Woo: The Monkey Who Inspired Emily Carr, written by Grant Hayter-Menzies, and published by Douglas & McIntyre. It's billed as a lyrical biography of the Javanese macaque Carr adopted in 1923. ■
