Visions of British Columbia: A Landscape Manual is an extensive survey of art that represents the variety and richness of artistic vision in British Columbia. The catalogue highlights key artistic practices that have recorded, communicated and shaped the public perception of this region and defined a collective consciousness of this place. Drawn primarily from the Gallery’s rich permanent collection and supplemented with key loans, the publication includes landscapes, cityscapes and portraits in a variety of media that speak to the diversity of British Columbia, its peoples and its histories.
The subtitle of the text refers to Jeff Wall’s Landscape Manual, an inexpensively produced booklet self-published in 1969, in which the artist provided commentary on the making of landscape photographs. Similarly, the artists in this exhibition studied the people and places of British Columbia and made work that, when shown together, offered a guide that could be used to negotiate the many narratives and experiences of the province. As the 2010 recipient of the City of Vancouver Book Award, Visions of British Columbia focuses on the art of 37 artists, including Roy Arden, B.C. Binning, Emily Carr, Robert Davidson, Gathie Falk, Brian Jungen, Scott McFarland, Liz Magor, Susan Point, Bill Reid, Jack Shadbolt, Gordon Smith, John Vanderpant, Frederick Varley, Jeff Wall, Ian Wallace and many others.
This catalogue was published on the occasion of an exhibition curated by Bruce Grenville with Emmy Lee and presented at the Vancouver Art Gallery from January 23 to April 18, 2010.
Edited by Bruce Grenville, Scott Steedman
Contributions by Bill Bisset, M. Wylie Blanchet, Clint Burnham, Emily Carr, Wayson Choy, Louis Collinson, 7aanaas Au, Douglas Coupland, Leslie Drew and Doug Wilson, Hubert Evans, Joseph Ferone, Maurice Gibbons, Charlotte Gill, Terry Glavin, Guujaaw, Radclyffe Hall, Roy Kiyooka, Malcolm Lowry, Daphne Marlatt, David Pitt-Brooke, Bill Reid, Gregory Scofield, Timothy Taylor, Madeleine Thien, Michael Turner, John Vaillant, Fred Wah, Jeff Wall, David Watmough, Ethel Wilson, Rita Wong, Ronald Wright and traditional words translated by Franz Boas
268 pages
6.5 x 9.5 inches
177 colour
ISBN 9781553655008
Softcover
Vancouver Art Gallery
2009