First published Sept. 2, 2018. Smith House II by Michael Prokopow, with photography by Michael Perlmutter and foreword by Douglas Coupland Novato, California: ORO Editions, 2018. $24.95 (U.S.) / 9781940743387 Reviewed by Harold Kalman UBC SALA/West Coast Modern House Series * Historian of architecture Hal Kalman appreciates Michael Prokopow’s Smith House II, the biography of a house…
Read more #363 An Erickson-Massey masterpiece
First published Jul. 8, 2018. Julia by Michael Kluckner Vancouver: Midtown Press, 2018. $19.95 / 9781988242200 Reviewed by Yvonne Van Ruskenveld Julia Henshaw is possibly the first woman in B.C. to have published a novel. She remains almost entirely unknown, although she was accorded an extensive entry in Alan Twigg’s Vancouver and Its Writers (Harbour:…
Read more #338 Julia, graphically yours
First published Jul. 3, 2018. Apples, etc.: An Artist’s Memoir by Gathie Falk with Robin Laurence Vancouver: Figure 1, 2018. $22.95 / 9781773270128 Reviewed by Sheryl Salloum * The opportunity to sit down with an eminent artist and have that person share their reminiscences is rare. In Apples, etc. An Artist’s Memoir by Gathie Falk…
Read more #336 Gathering Gathie
First published June 26, 2018. Sculpture in Canada: A History Maria Tippett Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 2017. $39.95 / 9781771620932 Reviewed by Catherine Nutting * Maria Tippett’s Sculpture in Canada is, she writes, not an encyclopedia, but an introduction; an eye-opener to some of the greatest Canadian sculpture. The book is an ambitious project. It…
Read more #329 From inuksuit to cyberspace
E.J. Hughes Paints Vancouver Island by Robert Amos, with the participation of the estate of E.J. Hughes Victoria: TouchWood Editions, 2018 $35 / 9781771512558 Reviewed by Phyllis Reeve * Postscript: On October 9, 2019, E.J. Hughes Paints Vancouver Island was awarded the 2019 City of Victoria Butler Book Prize in the non-fiction category — Ed….
Read more #326 Up-Island with E.J. Hughes
First published June 15, 2018. Beau Dick: Revolutionary Spirit by Darren J. Martens in collaboration with the Audain Art Museum Vancouver: Figure 1, 2018. $40 / 9781773270401 Reviewed by Alan L. Hoover * Chief Beau Dick (Walas Gwa’yam) (1955-2017) was a much-honoured artist and activist in the Kwakwaka’wakw community, the wider Indigenous and non-Indigenous arts…
Read more #323 Beau Dick’s revolutionary art
First published June 2, 2018. Life and Bronze: A Sculptor’s Journal by Ruth Abernethy Vancouver: Granville Island Publishing, 2016. $60 / 9781926991733 Reviewed by Maria Tippett * Born in Lindsay, Ontario, in 1960, Ruth Abernethy started building theatre props at the age of 17. After studying at Malaspina College (now Vancouver Island University) in Nanaimo,…
Read more #315 From props to hot properties
First published June 1, 2018. “B.C. is the best place in the world for landscape subject matter.” — E.J. Hughes “One of the main reasons I paint is because I think nature’s so wonderful that I want to try to get my feeling down about that on canvas, if possible. I feel that, when I…
Read more #314 E.J. Hughes renewed
First published May 18, 2018. Sonny Assu: A Selective History by Sonny Assu, with a foreword by Janet Rogers and essays by Candice Hopkins, Marianne Nicolson, Richard Van Camp, and Ellyn Walker Victoria: Heritage House, 2018. $34.95 / 9781772031706 Reviewed by Solen Roth * Sonny Assu: A Selective History showcases the first fifteen years in…
Read more #306 Assu’s autobiography of ancestors
First published May 8, 2018. Alan Caswell Collier, Relief Stiff: An Artist’s Letters from Depression-era British Columbia by Peter Neary (editor) Vancouver: UBC Press, 2018. $45 / 9780774834988 Reviewed by Daniel Francis “You have to protest once in a while for the good of your health.” — Alan Collier * Most British Columbians live within…
Read more #302 When camping was no picnic
First published Nov. 23, 2017. REVIEW: Edges of Empire: A Documentary by Rhodri Jones (Rhodri Windsor-Liscombe) Vancouver: Rarebit Press. 2017. $20.00 / 9780994941237 Reviewed by Julian Wake * Born in 1946, Rhodri Windsor-Liscombe studied at the Courtauld Institute of Art at the University of London and came to Canada to teach art history at McGill…
Read more #208 Autobiography of a WASP
Under Vancouver 1972-1982 by Greg Girard, with interviews by William Gibson and David Campany Toronto: The Magenta Foundation, 2017 $50.00 / 9781926856100 Reviewed by Bill Jeffries * Born in 1955, Greg Girard grew up in Burnaby and started photographing Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside in 1972, when he was still in high school. Girard moved to Hong…
Read more #137 Glimpses of pre-Expo Vancouver
The Art of Jeffrey Rubinoff by James Fox (editor) Madeira Park: Douglas & McIntyre, 2016 $36.95 / 9781771621298 Reviewed by Catherine Nutting First published May 22, 2017 * The Art of Jeffrey Rubinoff concerns Rubinoff’s sculpture, the park on Hornby Island he shaped as a permanent sculptural exhibit and his conviction that the process of…
Read more #129 Hornby haven for herd of steel
REVIEW: Lost Vancouver: an Unexpected Art Deco Tour An exhibit at Space Gallery at 552 Clark Drive, Vancouver Reviewed by Michael Kluckner * Between April 11 and April 23, Space Gallery hosts an exhibit, Lost Vancouver: an Unexpected Art Deco Tour. Michael Kluckner, who visited the exhibit for The Ormsby Review, appraises the work of Anne…
Read more #119 Bike ride & Art Deco exhibit
Bill Reid Collected by Martine J. Reid Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 2016, in collaboration with the Bill Reid Centre $19.95 / 9781771621151 Reviewed by Victoria Wyatt First Published March 28, 2017 * Much has been written about Bill Reid (1920-1998), the internationally known Haida artist whose monumental works appear in contexts such as the Canadian…
Read more #110 Bill Reid’s legacy enhanced