Fashioning The Canadian Landscape

In his book Fashioning the Canadian Landscape, J.I. Little examines how Canada, much like the United States, came to be identified with its natural landscape. Little argues that in contrast to America, Canada's image was strongly influenced by the picturesque convention favoured by British travel writers.

Emphasizing the ways in which social, economic, and political conditions determine representation, Marylin McKay moves beyond canonical images and traditional nationalistic interpretations by analyzing Canadian landscape art in relation to different concepts of territory. Taking an expansive and inclusive perspective on Canadian landscape art, McKay depicts this tradition in all its diversity and draws it into the larger body of Western landscape art, broadening the horizon of future study, appreciation, and criticism. Richly illustrated and filled with sophisticated and innovative commentary, Picturing the Land provides new and distinct histories of the landscape art of French and English Canada.

The image of the “land” is an ongoing trope in conceptions of Canada—from the national anthem and the flag to the symbols on coins—the land and nature remain linked to the Canadian sense of belonging and to the image of the nation abroad. Linguistic landscapes reflect the multi-faceted identities and cultural richness of the nations. Earlier portrayals of the land focused on unspoiled landscape, depicted in the paintings of the Group of Seven, for example. Contemporary notions of identity, belonging, and citizenship are established, contested, and legitimized within sites and institutions of public culture, heritage, and representation that reflect integration with the land, transforming landscape into landmarks. The Highway of Heroes originating at Canadian Forces Base Trenton in Ontario and Grosse Île and the Irish Memorial National Historic Site in Québec are examples of landmarks that transform landscape into a built environment that endeavours to respect the land while using it as a site to commemorate, celebrate, and promote Canadian identity. Similarly in literature and the arts, the creation of the built environment and the interaction among those who share it is a recurrent theme. This collection includes essays by Canadian and international scholars whose engagement with the theme stems from their disciplinary perspectives as well as from their personal and professional experience—rooted, at least partially, in their own sense of national identity and in their relationship to Canada.

The legacy of the Group of Seven and the reinvention of Canadian landscape art since the 1960s.

Innate Terrain addresses the varied perceptions of Canada’s natural terrain, framing the discussion in the context of landscapes designed by Canadian landscape architects. This edited collection draws on contemporary works to theorize a distinct approach practiced by Canadian landscape architects from across the country. The essays – authored by Canadian scholars and practitioners, some of whom are Indigenous or have worked closely with Indigenous communities – are united by the argument that Canadian landscape architecture is intrinsically linked to the innate qualities of the surrounding terrain. Beautifully illustrated, Innate Terrain aims to capture distinct regional qualities that are rooted in the broader context of the Canadian landscape.

This book, published to accompany the exhibition of the same title, explores Jean-Paul Riopelle's interest in northern Canada and his works devoted to this theme. It highlights in particular the wonderful series of paintings he made in the 1970s, including both the works themselves and archival materials that delve into this period when Riopelle was especially energetic. It was a time when he organized a number of trips to the region to fish, hunt, and immerse himself in nature, seeking the communion that was so dear to him. But it was not just the vegetation in northern Canada that attracted Riopelle; the indigenous peoples he encountered were also a source of great inspiration for him. In combination, these two aspects of the land filled his imagination and molded his intellectual and artistic perspective. The reader will become acquainted with his less well known and unpublished works, and follow Riopelle's artistic development as he ranged over the frozen landscapes of the far north and the limitless forests further south, taking stock of the way the natives adapted to their environment. The book emphasizes the fact that Riopelle's oeuvre deliberately kept its distance from works that depicted nature as the defining emblem of the Canadian nation. Rather, the artist was the bearer of a unique personal sensibility that was able to visually evoke that particular territory in a dialog between reality and imagination. The more than 100 works included in the book (paintings, sculptures, prints, and mixed-media works) are part of a narrative consisting of four main sections (Canadian Nordicity as Viewed from Paris; The Experience of the North; Borrowing from the North; The North and Art), whose themes are examined in essays contributed by specialists in relevant fields.