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Inspired Pages Filled With Rocks, Art, Tunes, And Beasts Both Real & Imagined

bad-luck-hot-rocks

Read This is a new Scout column that details book selections by authorities, luminaries, institutions, and locals that share deep affections for the written word. To kick things off, we asked for four titles from Kristine Suddaby, Cybele Creery, Hillary Webb, and Angela Evans at The Emily Carr University Library.

Where Art Belongs / Chris Kraus (Cambridge, Mass. and London, England: MIT Press, 2011)

KS: “Sitting at the intersection of what is real and what is imagined, art and life blur. In four short, accessible essays, Chris Kraus explores a variety of ways of making and thinking about art. Where Art Belongs examines artists’ collectives and projects, such as, “Tiny Creatures”, and “The Bernadette Corporation”, subtly acknowledging deeper philosophical questions, and challenging traditional ideas, of art and making. An unintimidating text that offers a fresh personal perspective on art enterprises of the past decade.”

Moonhead and the Music Machine / Andrew Rae (London: Nobrow Press, 2014)

HW: “Moonhead and the Music Machine is the stellar debut graphic novel of Andrew Rae. The book so believably illustrates a teenager’s struggle to get through high school feeling so different from everyone else, and the pinnacle moment when inspiration, self confidence, and common ground is found through the love of music. The bright colours and flying shapes make the music come alive through the pages. And if you’re curious to hear The Moonheads psychedelic sound, they have a bandcamp page!”

Bad Luck, Hot Rocks: Conscience Letters and Photographs from the Petrified Forest / Edited by Ryan Thompson & Phil Orr (Los Angeles: Ice Plant, 2014)

CC: “Sometimes, you might be on a trip somewhere and you want to remember it, so you pick something up, a rock, a twig, a vial of sand. It belongs to the natural world, right, so it doesn’t belong to anyone. Often this is a child’s impulse, but it can be an adult one as well. The Petrified Forest, part of the Painted Desert of Arizona, is a rich source of geological information. Many visitors have been compelled to take home an object, in spite of strict instructions not to. Later, overcome with guilt, or sometimes, beleaguered by bad luck, they return the object, accompanied by a letter of explanation. Sad and hilarious, with an unexpected twist of nostalgia, some of these letters give a simple “sorry”, while others are surprisingly personal and involved. Perfect summer reading!”

Curious Woodcuts of Fanciful and Real Beasts: A Selection of 190 Sixteenth­Century Woodcuts from Gesner’s and Topsell’s Natural Histories / Konrad Gesner (New York: Dover, 1971)

AE: “This book features a charming and diverse selection of woodcut illustrations that originated in the 16th and 17th centuries. The creatures depicted range from whimsically precise anatomical drawings of birds to fantastical twelve­-armed, four-­eyed creatures once supposedly seen in the Aegean Sea. While these images were originally created for scientific purposes, when viewed through a modern eye they have value for both their historical origins and for their artistic attributes. Many of the illustrations would not look out of place on the wall of a contemporary tattoo studio!”

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unnamedThe Emily Carr University Library is dedicated to supporting practice and research on campus and throughout Vancouver’s creative community. They specialize in collecting new artists’ publications, graphic novels, exhibition catalogues, and international art and design magazines. Emily Carr University of Art + Design (est.1925) is a world leader in education and research. Encouraging experimentation at the intersection of art, design, media and technology, our learning community merges research, critical theory and studio practice in an interdisciplinary environment.

Scout Book Club, Vol. 10

We like consuming words on the page almost as much as we like consuming food on the plate. Welcome to the Scout Book Club: a brief and regular rundown of what we're reading, what's staring at us from the bookshelf begging to be read next, and what we've already read and recommend.

Scout Book Club, Vol. 9

We like consuming words on the page almost as much as we like consuming food on the plate. Welcome to the Scout Book Club: a brief and regular rundown of what we're reading, what's staring at us from the bookshelf begging to be read next, and what we've already read and recommend.

Scout Book Club, Vol. 8

We like consuming words on the page almost as much as we like consuming food on the plate. Welcome to the Scout Book Club: a brief and regular rundown of what we're reading, what's staring at us from the bookshelf begging to be read next, and what we've already read and recommend.

Scout Book Club, Vol. 7

We like consuming words on the page almost as much as we like consuming food on the plate. Welcome to the Scout Book Club: a brief and regular rundown of what we're reading, what's staring at us from the bookshelf begging to be read next, and what we've already read and recommend.