Throwing out books prompted the staff at the Two Rivers Gallery to get wordy with each other on the value of volumes.
The process of purging their in-house curatorial library turned a page in the head of assistant curator Meghan Hunter-Gauthier and others on the gallery team. Before long their debates about which books to hold onto and which books to dispatch became the basis of the exhibition opening tonight at the downtown art facility.
"Art is a great way to force people to think differently, challenge people's perceptions. We had too many books. That process started conversations, and it grew into an idea that if we were having this conversation, if it was important in that way, then it must be something going on out in the broader public," said Hunter-Gauthier.
"Space is an issue with books. When do you store large numbers of books in some kind of tablet format and when do you want to have the physical thing? This issue of using technology or holding it in your hand is in play and, in the grand scheme of things, it's a new issue. This exhibition is about our relationship with books and how we value books in contemporary times."
The show is called Unbound and features visual art that is about books, or may in fact use books as the basis for the visual creations.
Hunter-Gauthier led a search for artists across Canada who had made bookish art. She collected works from five in particular: Jennifer Bowes, Robert Chaplin, Adam David Brown, Angela Grauerholz and Guy Larame.
It took months of searching. Hunter-Gauthier said there was research done in the publications of the Canadian visual arts sector, archives were excavated, and other artists and institutions were consulted to find as much art as possible to consider for the exhibition. As art was discovered, she would make contact with the artists.
"There was a long list, actually," she said, underscoring how indeed the humble book was on the national mind in these changing times for the written and stored word. "All of these artists were brought together because their art considered books or used books in some particular way, but not in similar ways. There is a great deal of variety here."
Chaplin's work, for example, uses actual books in sculpture form. Most of them are so literally books that they have ISBN numbers (the identity code for published works).
She said the conversation with the artists typically got started the same way. It was a cold-call. The artist would hear the pitch of the book being the central character in this scene. Would they be willing to include their work in that silent conversation?
"You never know what you're going to get when you start to plan an exhibition," Hunter-Gauthier said. "I really didn't have a vision for the show, the vision materialized as the works became more certain."
The vision is unveiled tonight at the gallery at a free public reception at 7:30 p.m. One of the included artists, Bowes, will do an artists' talk as part of the festivities. Live music and refreshments are included.
A second art exhibition also opens tonight at the same reception. Gary Pearson's Excerpts From A Retrospective will also be unveiled.
