ESSAY: Advanced Typography Workshops in Quarantine by Thomas Girard * In October 2020, Thomas Girard of the Graduate Liberal Studies programme at Simon Fraser University taught a course in Advanced Typography at a design school in Vancouver. Here, he provides a summary of that course with nods to the history — and ubiquity — of…
Read more Teaching typography in quarantine
ESSAY: Unique ways of prototyping by Thomas Girard * Editor’s note: When asked to define “prototyping” as used in this essay, Thomas Girard replied: When I talk about “prototyping” here, I’m talking about it in part as I’ve learnt it in traditional design education, at Emily Carr University of Art + Design, years ago. In…
Read more #890 Podiums, prototypes, and Plato
Inside View: The Eye Behind the Lens by Michael G. Varga and Roxanne Davies Victoria: Island Blue (Printorum), 2018 $20.00 / 9781790697366 Reviewed by Timothy Lewis This book is available through Amazon.ca * The perception one gets through the lens of a television camera often allows the viewer to gain perspective on something they would…
Read more #826 Lights, action, Michael Varga
Agency by William Gibson Toronto: Penguin Random House Canada (Berkley Books), 2020 $37.00 / 9781101986936 Reviewed by John Belshaw * Fully articulated alternative histories have been around for at least a century. In addition to attempts on the part of scholarly historians to change up the past, there are plenty of storylines in fiction that…
Read more #773 Past imperfect
Rise of the Necrofauna: The Science, Ethics and Risks of De-Extinction by Britt Wray, with a foreword by George Church Vancouver: Greystone Books, 2019 $32.95 / 9781771644723 Review by Tom Koppel * Welcome to the brave new world of 21st century genetics and the quest by a few clusters of audacious scientists to bring back…
Read more #747 The mammoth in the room
Three books reviewed by Graeme Wynn: The Anthropocene Disruption by Robert William Sandford Victoria: Rocky Mountain Books, 2019 $20.00 / 9781771603195 Anthropocene by Edward Burtynsky, Jennifer Baichwal, and Nicholas de Pencier; and co-edited by Sophie Hackett, Andrea Kunard, and Urs Stahel Fredericton and Toronto: Goose Lane Editions and Art Gallery of Ontario, 2018 $35.00 / 9781773100975…
Read more #723 Appraising the Anthropocene
Advocates and activists by Graeme Wynn, with Jennifer Bonnell An extract from The Nature of Canada, edited by Colin M. Coates and Graeme Wynn (Vancouver: On Point Press, an imprint of UBC Press, 2019) * Jenny Clayton has reviewed The Nature of Canada for the Ormsby Review — see #603, Deep time to time slipping…
Read more #683 Nature’s advocates and activists
The Hidden Life of Trees: The Illustrated Edition by Peter Wohlleben, translated by Jill Billinghurst, with a foreword by Tim Flannery Vancouver: Greystone Books/ David Suzuki Institute, 2018 $45.00 / 9781771643481 Reviewed by Loys Maingon * At the dawn of the twentieth century, the Scottish-American naturalist John Muir prophetically summarized modern man’s dysfunctional relation to…
Read more #682 Nature as superorganism
The Bulldog and the Helix: DNA and the Pursuit of Justice in a Frontier Town by Shayne Morrow Victoria: Heritage House, 2019 $22.95 / 9781772032505 Reviewed by Kathryn Neilson * This book originates from the abduction, rape, and brutal murder of two young girls in the small pulp mill town of Port Alberni on Vancouver…
Read more #577 A trillion to one in Port Alberni
Eppich House II: The Story of an Arthur Erickson Masterwork by Greg Bellerby, with an introduction by Michelangelo Sabatino Vancouver: Figure 1 Publishing, 2019 $45.00 / 9781773270470 Reviewed by Martin Segger * This is the second volume in a series edited by Geoffrey Erickson and authorized by the Erickson family. (The first was Francisco Kirpacz:…
Read more #555 Arthur Erickson’s steel house
The Story of Radio Mind: A Missionary’s Journey on Indigenous Land by Pamela Klassen London and Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2018 $27.50 (U.S.) / 9780226552736 Reviewed by Susan Neylan * Colonialism has spiritual dimensions; the process of creating a country like Canada transcends physical space and expands into metaphysical realms to permeate the…
Read more #548 On a wing & a telepathic prayer
ESSAY: Universal Technologies and Traditional Innovations: A Comprehensive Perspective for Museums by Yosef Wosk An Ormsby Exclusive, in collaboration with the The Canadian Academy of Independent Scholars First published Feb. 5, 2019 * We are pleased to present an essay by Yosef Wosk about nothing less than mankind’s accumulation and appreciation of shared knowledge and wisdom. This extraordinarily…
Read more #479 On the wings of forever
Oldness; or, the Last-Ditch Efforts of Marcus O by Brett Josef Grubisic Surrey: Now or Never Publishing, 2018 $19.95 / 9781988098630 Reviewed by Dustin Cole First published October 13, 2018 * I am 37. When I think about being 65, different things come to mind. There is hope for both artistic fulfillment and recognition. There are…
Read more #398 Boldness about oldness
Indian Fishing: Early Methods on the Northwest Coast by Hilary Stewart, foreword by Michael Kew Madeira Park: Douglas & McIntyre, 2018 (first published by J.J. Douglas, 1977) $28.95 / 9781771621854 Reviewed by Dana Lepofsky First published Sept. 30, 2018 * Editor’s Note: Born in Saint Lucia in the West Indies in 1924, Hilary Majendie Stewart…
Read more #388 Indian fishing revived
First published March 22, 2018. Canada: Modern Architectures in History by Rhodri Windsor Liscombe and Michelangelo Sabatino London: Reaktion Books, 2016. £20.00 / 9781780236339 Reviewed by Martin Segger * This survey of Modernism in Canada is the thirteenth volume in a series of country-by-country studies of twentieth century architecture. This one has long been anticipated…
Read more #270 Starchitects, 1886 onwards
Kwäday Dän Ts’ìnchi: Teachings from Long Ago Person Found by Richard J. Hebda, Sheila Greer, and Alexander Mackie (editors) Victoria: Royal British Columbia Museum, 2017 $49.95 / 9780772666994 Reviewed by Tom Koppel First published March 7, 2018 * It was back in August of 1999, in the northwest corner of British Columbia, in the traditional territory of…
Read more #261 Tatshenshini Man
Vertical Horizons: The History of Okanagan Helicopters by Douglas M. Grant Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2017 $39.95 / 9781550178135 Reviewed by Wayne Wilson First published Feb. 12, 2018 * Helicopters have been and remain a romantic and unlikely marriage of technology and human aspiration; and it is really only in the last few decades…
Read more #247 High risks, high expectations
Frozen in Time: The Fate of the Franklin Expedition by Owen Beattie and John Geiger, with a foreword by Wade Davis and an introduction by Margaret Atwood Vancouver: Greystone Books, 2017 (first published by Western Producer Prairie Books, 1988; subsequent editions by Douglas & McIntyre, 1998, and Greystone, 2004 and 2014) $24.95 / 9781771641739 Reviewed…
Read more #223 Starvation Cove & Terror Bay
People, Power, and Progress: The Story of John Hart Dam and the Campbell River Power Projects by Daniel Stoffman Vancouver: Figure 1 Publishing, 2017 $24.95 / 9781927958384 Reviewed by James Hull Co-published with the BC Hydro Power Pioneers. First published Dec. 11, 2017 * The John Hart Dam and generating station opened in December of…
Read more #218 One dammed river before another
British Columbia: A Natural History of Its Origins, Ecology, and Diversity With a New Look at Climate Change (revised and expanded third edition; first published by Douglas & McIntyre, 1996) by Richard Cannings and Sydney Cannings Vancouver: Greystone Books, 2015. $34.95 / 9781771640732 Reviewed by Loys Maingon First published Dec. 10, 2017 * Richard and…
Read more #216 Ignorance is not bliss