A century ago, a group of artists travelled into northern Ontario and farther afield to capture the raw, terrible beauty that lay just beyond the outskirts of Canada's cities and towns. Armed with sketchbooks, brushes, and paint boxes, they set off into the heart of the wilderness with the singular purpose of interpreting the landscape in a modern mode of artistic expression.

In July 1977, Jim and Sue Waddington set off on their own expedition to discover the places that inspired these artists. Determined to locate, document, and photograph the actual landscapes that inspired A.Y. Jackson, Franklin Carmichael, Arthur Lismer, Lawren Harris, A.J. Casson, J.E.H. MacDonald, Tom Thomson, and Frederick Varley, the Waddingtons began a thirty-six-year journey — tracking down clues, deciphering bits of information, tracing ancient portage routes, and exploring hidden inlets — all with the purpose of finding the very spots that gave birth to the work of the Group of Seven.

The result was an amazing story of discovery. In this paper-bound edition of their bestselling book, in which original paintings are paired with contemporary photographs of the locations where the original works were created, Jim and Sue Waddington invite their readers to come face to face with the elusive muses that enlightened and enriched this renowned group of artists.

While on a canoe trip in 1977, Jim and Sue Waddington located the place that was the inspiration for one of A.Y. Jackson’s paintings. This marked the beginning of their quest to find more of the special places chosen by the Group of Seven and Tom Thomson. Their search began in Killarney Provincial Park, but they followed the painters throughout Ontario, to the east and west coasts of Canada, to the Yukon and Northwest Territories, and, most recently, to Nunavut. They have learned about the painters’ habits and their techniques. Sue is an artist — a traditional rug hooker. Her rug-hooking designs have won awards in the Burlington Art Centre and from the Ontario Hooking Craft Guild. Jim is the photographer with no awards but plenty of rewards. They enjoy canoeing, camping, hiking, and the sport of orienteering. Although they have found some painting sites in cities and towns, they particularly enjoy the search for those sites that may be reached only by canoe or by foot.

Tom Smart is an author, curator, columnist, and special advisor to art galleries and museums. He is especially noted for his award-winning biographies, catalogues, and books on Canadian artists, including Miller Brittain, Jack Chambers, Alex Colville, Tom Forrestall, John Hooper, Christopher Pratt, Mary Pratt, and Fred Ross.

"Kim Dorland" explores the mind and work of one of Canada's most intriguing contemporary artists. Named Globe and Mail 'Artist of the Year' in 2013, Dorland has captured the public's imagination with his tour-de-force, visceral creations. His paintings are at once referential, material, psychological, beautiful, and uncomfortable, resulting in a body of work that is seemingly disparate but undeniably connected through its idiosyncratic - and maximal - use of paint in all its forms.

Katerina Atanassova is the chief curator of the McMichael Canadian Art Collection. Since her appointment in 2009, she has led and curated several special exhibitions, among them The Tree: Form and Substance (2011) and You Are Here: Kim Dorland and the Return to Painting (2013). She was also the co-curator for the enormously successful international touring exhibition, Painting Canada: Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven. She is a graduate of Sofia University and holds an M.A. from the Centre for Mediaeval Studies, University of Toronto. She is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the Department of Art History and Visual Culture at York University, where she is working on urban visuality and the emergence of urban culture in Canada. Robert Enright is the senior contributing editor and film critic for Border Crossings magazine and the University Research Chair in Art Theory and Criticism in the School of Fine Art and Music at the University of Guelph. He is the author of a number of books and has contributed introductions, interviews, and essays to hundreds of books and catalogues. He was a nominator and contributor to both Vitamin P2 and Vitamin D2. In 2005 he was made a member of the Order of Canada. He lives in Winnipeg, ManitobaJeffrey Spalding is an artist, writer, and curator. He has served as director at major art museums, including Glenbow Museum, University of Lethbridge, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, and Appleton Museum of Art, Florida. He is author of numerous books and catalogues. Spalding was president of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (2007-10), recipient of the Alberta College of Art and Design Board of Governors Award of Excellence (1992), awarded the Order of Canada (2007) and the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal (2012). Currently he is artistic director and chief curator at Contemporary Calgary.

A smartly packaged, affordably priced collection of the works of a Canadian icon.

Nearly seventy years after her death, Emily Carr's works continue to capture the grandeur of British Columbia's landscape and define our vision of the nation. The approximately one hundred works reproduced in this collection showcase the breadth of Carr's career, from early watercolours in Skidegate and Alert Bay on the northwest coast to charcoal sketches in mid-career to the stunning oils of trees, ravens, and mountains that characterized her later career.

Beautifully designed, its small format and price ideal for giftbuyers and visitors to the province, this volume is a compendium of some of Carr's best and most memorable works.

Ian M. Thom is a Senior Curator-Historical at the Vancouver Art Gallery. Involved in Canadian art museums for more than thirty years, he has also held senior curatorial positions at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria and the McMichael Canadian Art Collection. He has organized more than one hundred exhibitions and written numerous articles and authored or co-authored many books, including Robert Davidson: Eagle of the Dawn, Andy Warhol: Images, Art BC, E.J. Hughes, Takao Tanabe, B.C. Binning, Emily Carr: New Perspectives on a Canadian Icon and Challenging Traditions: Contemporary First Nations Art of the Northwest Coast. He lives in Vancouver, BC.

The first book to look extensively at conceptualism in Canada, published to accompany a touring exhibition.

The most transformative art movement of the late 20th century, conceptual art became a global phenomenon long before it was popularized by a new generation of artists and institutions in the early 21st century.

Its various manifestations in Canada, however, have remained a limited concern -- a whispered art history circulated among artists and writers primarily in alternative publications and artist-run centres. Traffic: Conceptual Art in Canada 1965–1980 is the first publication and exhibition to track the complex, rigorous and diverse manifestations of conceptual art in the country. Presenting work by more than 90 artists in a beautifully produced package, Traffic examines the particular local and geographic needs and interests enacted by individual artists, collectives and art communities from across the country.

Grant Arnold is Audain Curator of British Columbia Art at the Vancouver Art Gallery, where over the past 20 years he has organized more than 35 exhibitions of historical, modern and contemporary art. He has also contributed essays and articles to exhibition catalogues, books and journals, recent examples being Ken Lum, Mark Lewis: Cold Morning, and Roy Arden: Against the Day. He lives in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Karen Henry is a freelance curator, writer, editor and art consultant. She was formerly Director of the Western Front and the Burnaby Art Gallery, and Adjunct Curator at Presentation House Gallery. She has published articles and contributed essays to catalogues including Acting the Part: Photography as Theatre, National Gallery of Canada and Stan Douglas: Abbott & Cordova, 7 August 1971, Ciel Variable No. 85.

Vincent Bonin is an author and independent curator. From 2000 to 2007, he worked as an archivist at the Daniel Langlois Foundation for Art, Science, and Technology (Montreal). As a curator, he notably organized the three-part project (consisting of two exhibitions and one publication) entitled Documentary Protocols (1967-1975) at Concordia University’s Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery (2007-2008).

Catherine Crowston is Deputy Director / Chief Curator of the Art Gallery of Alberta. In 2002 Crowston served as the Canadian Commissioner for the Sydney Biennale of Contemporary Art and was awarded the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts Medal for Outstanding Achievement in the Visual Arts.

Jayne Wark received her Ph.D. in Art History from the University of Toronto in 1997 and also holds a BFA (Studio) from NSCAD. She has published numerous articles and exhibition catalogue essays on performance, video and conceptual art and is the author of Radical Gestures: Feminist Performance Art in North America

William Wood is an Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia.

A stunning and diverse collection of artworks from the personal collection of one of Canada's premier art patrons.

Gifts from private art collectors have played a vital role in building and expanding the Vancouver Art Gallery's collection. Shore, Forest and Beyond is an exhibition of 100 works gathered from the collection assembled by Michael Audain.

The exhibition and this accompanying publication highlight the breadth of the collection, which includes:

mid-19-century masks by Haida, Nuxalk, Salish, Tlingit and Tsimshian carvers

contemporary First Nations works by Robert Davidson, Brian Jungen and Marianne Nicolson

paintings by British Columbia artists Emily Carr, B.C. Binning and E.J. Hughes and contemporary works by Roy Arden, Jeff Wall, Attila Richard Lukacs, Angela Grossman and Takao Tanabe

Mexican modernist works by Diego Rivera and Rufino Tamayo

Exhibition dates

October 29, 2011 – January 29, 2012

Vancouver Art Gallery

This book was published in partnership with the Vancouver Art Gallery.

Ian M. Thom is a Senior Curator-Historical at the Vancouver Art Gallery. Involved in Canadian art museums for more than thirty years, he has also held senior curatorial positions at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria and the McMichael Canadian Art Collection. He has organized more than one hundred exhibitions and written numerous articles and authored or co-authored many books, including Robert Davidson: Eagle of the Dawn, Andy Warhol: Images, Art BC, E.J. Hughes, Takao Tanabe, B.C. Binning, Emily Carr: New Perspectives on a Canadian Icon and Challenging Traditions: Contemporary First Nations Art of the Northwest Coast. He lives in Vancouver, BC.

Grant Arnold is Audain Curator of British Columbia Art at the Vancouver Art Gallery. Over the past twenty years he has organized exhibitions of historical, modern and contemporary art, including Ken Lum, Reece Terris: Ought Apartment, Fred Herzog: Vancouver Photographs, Rodney Graham: A Little Thought, Liz Magor, and The Terminal City and the Rhetoric of of Utopia. He has written, taught and lectured extensively. He lives in Vancouver, BC.

A gorgeous retrospective on the transformation of Inuit art in the 20th century, mirroring the vast and poignant cultural changes in the North.

In response to a rapidly changing Arctic environment, Inuit have had to cope with the transition from a traditional lifestyle to the disturbing realities of globalization and climate change. Inuit art in the latter half of the 20th century reflects the reciprocal stimulus of contact with Euro-Canadians and embodies the evolution of a modern Inuit aesthetic that springs from an ancient cultural context, creating an exciting new hybridized art form. Inuit Modern: Art from the Samuel and Esther Sarick Collection situates modern Inuit art within a larger framework that reinterprets the Canadian Arctic. Essays by leading Canadian scholars in the field including Ingo Hessel, Robert McGhee, Christine Laloude, Heather Igloliorte, Dorothy Eber and Bernadette Driscoll Engelstad examine the social, political and cultural transformation through the dynamic lens of colonial influence and agency. Inuit Modern also features interviews with David Ruben Piqtoukun and Zacharias Kunuk.

This book was published in partnership with the Art Gallery of Ontario.

Gerald McMaster, PhD, is the Fredrik S. Eaton Curator of Canadian Art at the Art Gallery of Ontario. During his tenure as Curator of Contemporary Indian Art at the Canadian Museum of Civilization (1981-2000), he established the first Indian and Inuit gallery at the CMC. In 1992, he curated Indigena for the Canadian Museum of Man and co-authored the book Indigena: Contemporary Native Perspectives in Canadian Art. His publications include Reservation X (1998), Native Universe (2004) and Remix: New Modernities in a Post-Indian World (2007). In 1995, he served as Canadian Commissioner and curated Edward Poitras's exhibition at the Venice Biennale. From 2000 to 2004, he was Deputy Assistant Director for Cultural Resources at the National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution. At NMAI, he curated First American Art (2004) and New Tribe / New York (2005). He was awarded the Order of Canada (2007) and the National Aboriginal Achievement Award in 2005.



Ingo Hessel is the Albrecht Adjunct Curator of Inuit Art at the Heard Museum in Phoenix. His publications include the seminal Inuit Art: An Introduction, Arctic Spirit and Sanattiaqsimajut: Inuit Art from the Carleton University Art Gallery Collection. He curated the exhibition Arctic Spirit for the Heard Museum, which toured to ten cities across North America from 2006 to 2009. For twelve years he was Special Projects Officer and Coordinator of the Inuit Art Section in the Canadian Government's Department of Indian and Northern Affairs, which published his educational booklet Canadian Inuit Sculpture in eight languages. Ingo Hessel is also a sculptor who has had many solo exhibitions in Canada and Japan.

Ingo Hessel is the Albrecht Adjunct Curator of Inuit Art at the Heard Museum in Phoenix. His publications include the seminal Inuit Art: An Introduction, Arctic Spirit and Sanattiaqsimajut: Inuit Art from the Carleton University Art Gallery Collection. He curated the exhibition Arctic Spirit for the Heard Museum, which toured to ten cities across North America from 2006 to 2009. For twelve years he was Special Projects Officer and Coordinator of the Inuit Art Section in the Canadian Government's Department of Indian and Northern Affairs, which published his educational booklet Canadian Inuit Sculpture in eight languages. Ingo Hessel is also a sculptor who has had many solo exhibitions in Canada and Japan.

Christine Lalonde is the Associate Curator of Indigenous Art at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa.

Christine Lalonde is the Associate Curator of Indigenous Art at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa.

John Ralston Saul is an essayist and novelist. Winner of the Governor General’s Award for The Unconscious Civilization, he has published more than twelve books. He lives in Toronto, Ontario.

A seminal single-volume overview of the magnificent art of the Northwest Coast, with text from a distinguished authority augmented by full-colour images throughout.

Art Of The Northwest Coast is a superbly illustrated and informed overview of the First Nations art of the Northwest Coast, covering the region from Puget Sound to Haida Gwaii to Alaska, and proceeding from prehistoric times to the present. Created in the spirit of the best-selling Thames & Hudson World of Art series, this groundbreaking volume provides an overview of the development of the art's styles and meanings in the context of the region's social history.

Aldona Jonaitis argues convincingly that rather than being lost following European contact, Native traditions were simply expressed in different ways, and that First Nations art is now flourishing as never before. Compellingly written and beautifully designed, Art of the Northwest Coast is essential reading for anyone interested in art, First Nations cultures and the evolution of both.

Aldona Jonaitis is the author of a number of books including Art of the Northwest Coast and, with Aaron Glass, The Totem Pole: An Intercultural History.

Art BC presents -- in full colour -- 100 outstanding works by 84 of British Columbiaís foremost artists. Finally, we have the much-needed history of the visual arts in British Columbia, one that also properly integrates our great heritage of First Nations art into the mainstream. In the introduction, Ian M. Thom outlines the art history of the province over the past century. He also writes clearly and thoughtfully about each work individually, setting it in context to reflect the times in which it was made, describing the artistís achievements, and placing the artist and the work into the art history of British Columbia.

Ian M. Thom is a Senior Curator-Historical at the Vancouver Art Gallery. Involved in Canadian art museums for more than thirty years, he has also held senior curatorial positions at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria and the McMichael Canadian Art Collection. He has organized more than one hundred exhibitions and written numerous articles and authored or co-authored many books, including Robert Davidson: Eagle of the Dawn, Andy Warhol: Images, Art BC, E.J. Hughes, Takao Tanabe, B.C. Binning, Emily Carr: New Perspectives on a Canadian Icon and Challenging Traditions: Contemporary First Nations Art of the Northwest Coast. He lives in Vancouver, BC.