He had one thought, one love, one passion: the books! And this love, this passion burned his heart, spoiled his life, devoured his existence.
~Gustave Flaubert, Bibliomania, 1837
David Moos, art + reading contributor, Art Advisor and former Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), is re-reading Richard Prince’s American English. Since the 197...
Art + reading co-editor, Penelope Stewart, is currently wrapping up a 5-week residency at the Musée Barthète in Boussan, France. She has spent her time constructing a ‘primitive hut’ in the museum gardens. Titled Chantier, the installation is built from fallen branches, roots, garden debris, and found natural objects from the surrounding area. In French, the term chantier general...
Heather Thomson, 100 000 Mark 25 Juli 1923, lithograph, 2018
When artist Heather Thomson inherited a collection of German Papiermarks from her Scottish grandfather, it set her on an investigative journey into the history of war-time economics, currency design, and the art of forgery. Awarded Open Studio’s Don Philips Emerging Artist Scholarship in 2018, Heather dedicated this past...
Last summer while attending a master photography workshop in Léran, France, art + reading co-editor Penelope Stewart stumbled across a nineteenth century schoolbook entitled Nouvelle Botanique. Published in 1846, the small letter-press printed book included delicate botanical illustrations...
It is often said that if you choose a job you love, you will never have to work a day in your life. In his forthcoming book, The Pursuit of Pleasurable Work, art + reading contributor Trevor Marchand approaches this idea from an artisanal perspective, exploring the motivations behind a renewed professional shift towards vocational training in craft-oriented trades, such as fine-w...
Art + reading co-editor Jenn Law has been reading Gustave Flaubert. Her latest exhibition, Still, is inspired, in part, by his realist approach to constructing narrative worlds through detailed descriptions of discrete objects in domestic spaces. She is especially taken by Flaubert's novella A Simple Heart, which focuses on the life, hardships, and affections of a French hou...
Meet Johannesburg-based artist (and art + reading contributor) Clive van den Berg, pictured in his studio in front of one of his paintings in progress, reading Philip Guston & The Poets by Kosme de Baranano (Germany: Hauser & Wirth, 2017). Clive encountered Guston's paintings in 2017 at the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice and writes that he looks at Guston's images frequently,...
There is something transportive about reading a book set in a place that you are travelling. Art + reading contributor, Barbara Balfour, is currently living in Kyoto for three months while on research leave in Japan. Pictured here reading The Makioka Sisters by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki, she reflects on Tanizaki's gift for nuanced description and the immersive pleasures of tr...
On a chilly November day, it is lovely to imagine relaxing on a beach with a good book! Meet art + reading contributor, Kathryn Smith, pictured here reading Janet Malcolm’s Forty-one False Starts: Essays on Artists and Writersin Santander, Spain. A South African-born visual artist, writer, and curator, Kathryn is currently based in Liverpool, UK completing a PhD in forensic art...
We are excited to be returning to 3/edition Toronto International Art Book Fair this year! The fair is held in conjunction with Art Toronto at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, October 26-28, 2018. Please come visit us to learn about our recent projects! Admission to the book fair is free.
