Link Gallery, First Floor, Murray Building
Curated by: Cheryl Avery, Dee Gibson and Dr. Sandra Herron
May 5 - August 22, 2014
This exhibition features local, national and international examples of printing as a means of mass communication and as art form. Included amongst the many fine prints are sketches, artist proofs, matrices, woodblocks, metal type and engraving/carving tools which serve to introduce a sense of the process involved behind the scenes.
Historically, the introduction of printing, or the process of creating multiple, inexpensive copies of text and images, allowed for unrestricted circulation of information and ideas radically changed society by transcending class borders, creating a sense of cultural awareness that threatened the political power and broke the monopoly of the literate elite. Here we offer a glimpse of the early days of commercial printing in Canada and the west in particular.
Printmaking as art form is a time-consuming and expensive undertaking. Many printmaking processes require specific and often expensive equipment such as presses, plates, tools and chemicals. Springing both from necessity and a sense of community, printmaking collectives allow printmakers to pool resources, share expenses, and exchange ideas and techniques. This exhibition showcases a handful of such collectives from across the country from the northern Aboriginal communities, to the prairies, to the greater North American continent.
We are delighted that Dr. Sandra Herron, who recently completed her PhD through Interdisciplinary Studies at the U of S, agreed to curate a selection of religious, historical and literary texts from our Rare Books collection that explore the connections between printed images and text. Herron’s PhD considers the relationships between images and text in Catholic devotional books printed in city of Münster, Germany in the late 16th and early 17th centuries and focuses on how the image/text relationship guides the viewer to a specific Catholic reading, and additionally reveals the greater historical and religious developments. You can read more about the items highlighted in this cabinet in our Rare Books Online Showcase.
Several highlights include: original woodblock, lithographic and etched prints by local Saskatchewan artists, MacGregor Hone, Nik Semenoff and Marie-Elyse St. George; etchings and wood engraving by William Blake, Walter J. Phillips, Gerard Brender a Brandis, and master Dutch cartographers from the 17th century such as Joan Blaeu and Frederick de Wit.
Printed Matters Now: Contemporary Saskatchewan Printmakers in Conversation with University Archives & Special Collections
Gordon Snelgrove Gallery, rm 191, Murray Bldg
Curated by: Cheryl Avery and Dee Gibson
New work by 14 contemporary printmakers in response to materials in University Archives & Special Collections’ holdings, as well as works from the Mac Hone, Marie Elyse St. George and Nik Semenoff fonds.
Imprints
A suite of original prints created by contemporary Saskatchewan printmakers in response to materials in University Archives & Special Collections.
Inspired by the bundles of prints created and exchanged by members of the Wood Engravers’ Network; a group in which Mac Hone was an active participant for many years, we asked Saskatchewan printmakers to create a limited edition print inspired by prints or print-related materials in University Archives & Special Collections.
We approached local printmakers we knew personally, whose work we admired and who are alumni and/or faculty of the University of Saskatchewan. The artists responded enthusiastically and with great interest. We are thrilled with their interpretations and responses to both the project and the materials they engaged with. Each of the prints exhibited here is part of an edition of 20, which will be assembled into 20 suites containing one each of these 14 prints. At the end of the summer, we will distribute these suites, in the spirit of a print exchange, to each artist, as well as retaining one each for the permanent collections of University Archives & Special Collections and Library and Archives Canada.
