FridayOctober 25th
6:30pm
With a foreword by Sheila Heti, Leanne Shapton’s cult art book inspired by a government textbook is back in print with a gorgeous new cover. It is a new edition of the artist’s bold reinterpretation of a century-old book.
While shopping in the used-book store the Monkey's Paw in Toronto, Leanne Shapton happened upon a 1956 edition of the stalwart reference book The Native Trees of Canada, originally published in 1917 by the Canadian Department of Northern Affairs and National Resources. Most people might simply view the book as a dry cataloging of a banal subject; Shapton, however, saw beauty in the technical details and was inspired to create her own interpretation of The Native Trees of Canada.
Shapton distills each image into its simplest form, using vivid colors in lush ink and house paint. She takes the otherwise complex objects of trees, pinecones, and seeds and strips them down into bold, almost abstract shapes and colors: the water birch is represented as two pulsating red bulbs contrasted against a gray backdrop; the eastern white pine is represented by a close-up of its cone against a radiant summer sky.
“Leanne Shapton has distinguished herself as a writer (she’s also an artist) with an inspiring disdain for genre.” —The Globe and Mail
"[Shapton] is as at home with pictures as she is text, requiring her audience to master a skill she calls 'visual reading'.” —The Guardian
Leanne Shapton is a Canadian-born, New York based painter and writer. She has published eleven books of art and writing, including Was She Pretty?; The Native Trees of Canada; Sunday Night Movies; Guestbook; In Cars; and Toys Talking, a children’s book. She won the 2012 Books Critic’s Circle Award for her hybrid book of painting and text, Swimming Studies. Her book, Important Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris, Including Books, Street Fashion, and Jewelry has been translated into twelve languages. She is currently the art editor at the New York Review of Books, where she writes a monthly newsletter, and is working on her next book for Farrar, Straus & Giroux. Shapton is a fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society.
Sheila Heti is the author of 11 books, including Alphabetical Diaries, Pure Colour, Motherhood and How Should a Person Be? She lives in Toronto.
Jason Logan is an internationally recognized designer, creative director, author and artist. His illustrations appear regularly in the New York Times, and his fine art has been exhibited in New York City, Los Angeles, Toronto and the Yukon. His work has been recognized by the American Institute of Graphic Arts, The Society of Publication Designers, the Centre for Social Innovation and the Canada Council for the Arts. His most recent book, Make Ink: A Forager’s Guide to Natural Inkmaking, was included in The Guardian’s list of best books of 2018. His next book, How to Be a Color Wizard, will be published by MIT’s new children’s division September 2024. He is featured in The Colour of Ink, a documentary which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival will be in wide release this year.
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