Books

A Sense of Place

Explorations of the Landscape by David Blackwood, Thaddeus Holownia and Dan Steeves

For more information, visit the Abbozzo Gallery page on A Sense of Place.

The Light That Lives In Darkness

Limited edition letterpress

Gaspereau Press is pleased to announce the release of a limited edition letterpress book entitled The Light That Lives in Darkness. This collaborative work features text by Nova Scotia author Mark Harris and prints by New Brunswick artist Dan Steeves. Harris and Steeves have brought together words and images that explore the landscape of the Bay of Fundy and the resilience of faith.

In the first stage of this project Steeves made 12 intaglio prints. These depict roadways, houses and coastlines along the Bay of Fundy, and show Steeves' characteristic style with heavy, patterned skies and broad strokes of light alongside sharp detail. Harris chose nine of these prints and wrote accompanying prose. Harris' work draws on the strong presence of darkness and light in Steeves' art and translates it into reflections on faith, hope, isolation and human allegiance with coastal landscapes.

"We started the project a number of years ago. Where distance doesn't enable us to be together a lot, we started to correspond and we discovered a fair amount of resemblance in how we looked at things, saw things. I approached Dan about the possibility of doing something that would involve his work and my writing. For me it was a daunting challenge to write about images as potent and multi-layered as visual art is. I wanted to articulate some of the interior spiritual landscapes in Dan's work. These are scenes around the Bay of Fundy, but there's a whole interior world that sees that landscape in a particular way. My challenge was to articulate that world." —Mark Harris

"As a visual artist I have collaborated with author Mark Harris, excavating titles for my intaglio prints from letters he would send to me. Though this experience he suggested we do a book together. It was Andrew Steeves who suggested we start with a clean slate, creating new images and writing new thoughts based on these prints. The Light That Lives in Darkness developed through the friendship, respect and understanding between artist, writer and publisher. Ultimately it is a visual and verbal dialogue about place and hope, and the difference that both can make in this life." —Dan Steeves

The text is designed in Ludlow Eusebius, cast and printed letterpress on mould-made Johannot paper by Andrew Steeves. Each book includes nine intaglio prints made from zinc plates etched by Dan Steeves. The books are slipcased and casebound by Ruth Legge (paper-over-boards with a calf leather spine). The books measure approximately 11 x 6.5 inches in size and are 66 pages in length. One copy will be available for viewing at Gaspereau Press in Kentville, Nova Scotia.

The Bone Fields

So begins Canadian artist David Blackwood's foreword to The Bone Fields, an artbook comprising a collection of prints by Dan Steeves, a New Brunswick artist whose work has been inspired primarily by the intricacies of relationships.

Each of the twenty-two prints in the book is accompanied by short stories written by journalist Lynda MacGibbon who interviewed Steeves over the course of a year to research the motivation and history behind each work.

Steeves' prints bring to life the personalities of several generations of his family and friends, but the essence of his work goes much deeper than this. Underscoring all of Steeves' work is an interest in the historical roots that have shaped Atlantic Canadians, particularly as they relate to one another in families or friendships.

As Tom Smart, curator of the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, comments in an introductory essay to the book, Steeves' world is one "where understanding universal truths is gained through the meditation upon the peculiarities of place and family... His art calls us to find significance in the world and people around us."

Descibed by one reviewer as "hauntingly beautiful", The Bone Fields is Steeves' first book. A printmaking assistant in the Fine Arts Department at Mount Allison University, Sackville, New Brunswick, Steeves has exhibited his prints internationally.

Designed by Goose Lane Editions, The Bone Fields was launched at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, in conjunction with an exhibit of the work represented in the book. The exhibit then travelled to Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, and to the University of Toronto's Blackwood Gallery.