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Non-Fiction
 Signs
of the Times
By Bud Osborn
and Richard
Tetrault
Signs
of the Times reunites the poetry of Bud Osborn and the woodprints
of Vancouver printmaker and painter Richard Tetrault. As with
their first collaboration, Oppenheimer Park, Signs
of the Times is both an unflinching look at Vancouver's
Downtown Eastside and a beautiful object in its own right.
"Signs
of the Times are all around us. But whether we choose to see
and act is another matter. ... In this second collaboration
Osborn and Tetrault collide their mediums, and produce stunning
images and words that provoke an emotional, visual, intellectual
and political response. ... Their work portrays compassion,
love, power and despair, oppression, but above all, a hope of
what can be, for all of us, privileged or not. If this is your
first encounter with these two remarkable artists, you will
be drawn to learn more of the people, places and experiences
of which they write. For those already familiar with the poetry
and prose of Osborn and visual art of Tetrault, it is a strengthening
and determination to continue the struggle for justice and liberation
for all people who are oppressed by a soul destroying system."
—Libby
Davies, Member of Parliament (from the Preface)
Art/Poetry
48 pp, 9.5 x 7.5 (2-colour woodprints throughout)
ISBN: 1-895636-71-X
$20 CAN / $16 US
Reading
the Riot Act
by Michael
Barnholden
"Reading
the Riot Act" is a phrase that has entered the popular lexicon,
meaning the action taken by authority figures when they perceive
that their "charges" are getting out of hand. The act itself
is a seldom-used piece of legislation actually designed to prevent
a riot from taking place. Supposedly, the mere mention of the
Riot Act is enough to bring hardened miscreants bent on destruction
to their collective senses. But if a riot has started, it's
already too late to read the Riot Act. Every city has its distinct
history of rioting-the Rocket Richard riots in Montreal, the
Christie Pits riot in Toronto, the Winnipeg and Regina riots,
even the Shakespeare riots in New York where rival factions
rioted over which actor was the better interpreter of Shakespeare's
work. Reading the Riot Act is a popular history that
rereads and rewrites the legacy of riots in Vancouver. The project
was conceived following the city's Stanley Cup riots in 1994,
when official reports and media coverage differed significantly
from eyewitness accounts. Later, media reports on the APEC riots
downplayed and obscured certain facets of the conflict. Seeking
out sources beyond the official reports, Barnholden has compiled
a record of participants and observers, allowing the "vanquished"
to have their say. Barnholden shuns the simplistic "bad apple"
explanation, and explores the deeper economic causes and effects
of riots.
Canadian History
144 pp, 6 x 9
ISBN: 1-895636-67-1
$18 CAN / $15 US
 Confessions
of a Small Press Racketeer
by
Stuart Ross
Confessions
of a Small Press Racketeer is equal
parts literary memoir, advice for the emerging writer, and reckless
tirade. Ross has been active in the Canadian literary underground
for a quarter of a century: he's sold thousands of his books
in the streets, published and edited magazines, trained insurgents
in his Poetry Boot Camps, and started Canada's first Small Press
Book Fair. Where the media focusses only on the glamorous literary
lives of its few superstars, Ross gives us a glimpse into How
Writers Really Live. In Confessions, he declares himself
the King of Poetry, explores his floundering Jewish identity,
wanders into the best bookstore in Canada, offers a crash course
in avoiding writing, pisses off his publishers, runs a renegade
Canada booth at the International Book Fair in Managua, and
begs egomaniacal young writers to stop bugging the hell out
of him. Many of these essays are culled from Ross's bimonthly
"Hunkamooga" column in Word: Toronto's Literary Calendar.
Others are written specifically for this collection.
Praise
for Stuart Ross:
"His
work often reads like a richly textured single-panel comic,
a cross somewhere between Gary Larson and Edward Gorey, but
it can also be epic, poignant and devastatingly visceral." —Globe
and Mail
"one
of the best Canadian poets writing today...In the court of Canadian
poetry and society, Stuart Ross is a sort of Shakespearean fool...whose
clowning around serves a higher artistic and moral purpose."
—Arc
Literary Criticism
128 pp, 6 x 8
ISBN: 1-895636-65-5
$16 CAN / $14 US
 Painted
Lives & Shifting Landscapes: The Paintings, Prints &
Murals of Richard Tetrault
by
Richard Tetrault
Painted Lives & Shifting Landscapes showcases the artwork of
Vancouver painter, printmaker and muralist Richard Tetrault.
Tetrault's work explores universal themes of the figure and
the urban landscape. From Berlin to Bangkok to Vancouver, his
artwork revisits these themes over thirty years. His imagery
is at its most direct in street drawings and paintings, more
symbolic in monoprints and studio work, and most iconic in woodcuts
and linocuts. While Tetrault's studio work reflects the urban
setting, his murals are a direct attempt to influence the physical
texture of the street. Numerous mural projects and collaborations
bring the artist face-to-face with the edginess and the creative
spirit of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.
Commentary
by Pamela Fairfield, Jim Green, Michael Harris, and Patrick
Montgomery.
Praise for Richard Tetrault:
"one
of Vancouver's most important living artists"
—
Patrick
Montgomery, Evergreen Cultural Centre
"Tetrault's
murals don't replicate grim reality. Mind you, neither do they
sanitize. Let us say, instead, these portraits of the city are
both true and transformative."
—Vancouver
Sun
"Tetrault's
abilities as artist, mentor and friend bring the creative centres
of the mural painters...to the bold and dignified exterior of
the canvas."
—Pamela
Fairfield, Curator, Interurban Gallery
Richard
Tetrault has received numerous grants for his exhibits and public
projects, including a five-month residency in Germany, a Canada
Council Grant for an exhibition in Asia, support for touring
exhibitions in Mexico and Africa, and grants for mural collaborations
and workshops. These murals are visible throughout the Vancouver
area, in community centres, public housing developments, banks,
and schools.
Art Book
156 pages (100+ colour plates)
9.25 x 10.75
ISBN: 1-895636-62-0
$42 CAN / $36 US
 Heroines
photographs by Lincoln
Clarkes
Winner
of the City of Vancouver Book Award
The Heroines Series is an epic
photographic documentary of the addicted women of Vancouver’s
Downtown Eastside. In 1997, fashion and portrait photographer
Lincoln Clarkes turned his lens away from the world of glamour
and began documenting the dire circumstances being endured by
the marginalized women living and working on the streets of
Vancouver’s most troubled neighbourhood. The Heroines Series
consists of over 400 portraits of addicted women in Vancouver’s
notorious Downtown Eastside, and has garnered national and international
media attention. Peace Arch Entertainment produced a one-hour
documentary film, Heroines: A Photographic Obsession,
earlier this year for BRAVO! and Women’s Television Network.
The film “is a study in pain and intimacy, artistic expression
fuelled by passion and moral outrage” and is accompanied by
original poems written and narrated by Susan Musgrave. The documentary
opened the Leipzig Documentary Film Festival and has been screened
at several other festivals since its premiere in June of 2001.
"one
of the most timely, necessary and respectful books ever published
in British Columbia"
—BC Bookworld
"intimate,
compelling and undeniably unsettling"
—Globe & Mail
"incredibly
powerful"
—Toronto Star
"beauty
in a beastly place"
—London
Observer, UK
"images
[that] unsettled many people in a country that prides itself
on its polite order and tightly woven social safety net"
—L.A. Times Magazine
Photography
152 pp, 7 x 6.25
ISBN:1-895636-45-0
$29.00 can / $20.00 us
2ND
PRINTING
 The
Door Is Open
by Bart Campbell
Finalist
BC Book Prize
(Hubert
Evans Non-Fiction Prize)
Finalist
City of Vancouver
Book Prize
The
Door Is Open is a compassionate, reflective,
and informative memoir about three-and-a-half years spent volunteering
at a skid row drop-in centre in Vancouver's downtown eastside.
In an area most renowned for its shocking social ills, and the
notorious distinction of holding the country's "very poorest
forward sortation area of all 7,000 postal profixes," Bart
Campbell dismantles our hard-held notions about poverty, the
disenfranchised, substance abuse, and the nature of charity.
The
Door Is Open is one man's story of a transformative journey
into the complicated and complex world of poverty.
"my
pick as the best non-fiction book published in 2001" —Discorder
"The
human face of the poverty that grips upward of 5 million Canadians
is vividly portrayed"
—Quill & Quire
"Campbell's
experiences and friendships in the soup kitchen changed his
perspective on life, and ultimately helped him reconcile with
his wife after a 17-month separation."
—The Globe and Mail
Non-Fiction
144 pp, 5 x 8
ISBN: 1-895636-36-1
$14.95 Can / 10.95 US
A
Toilet Paper: A Treatise on Four Fundamental
Words Referring to Gaseous and Solid Wastes Together with Their
Point of Origin
By Rachel
Mines
A Toilet Paper
is a humorous examination, from a historical linguistic viewpoint,
of four commonly used words relating to our posterior orifice
and that which comes out of it.
"The humour of the pamphlet
is overwhelming"
—Rene Hering, Prairie Fire
Humour
Anvil Small Book Series
48 pp, 4.5 x 6
ISBN: 1-895636-40-X
$7 CAN / $5 US
 Exact
Fare Only: Good, Bad and Ugly Rides
on Public Transit
Edited by Grant Buday
We’ve all had good, bad,
and sometimes ugly experiences on public transit. Exact Fare
Only is an anthology of real life stories about heading
out, heading back, and everything that happened in between,
whether the trip was across the country or just across town.
"Exact Fare Only,
where travelers enjoy a state of transitory grace, accidentally
met."
—The Stranger, Seattle
"Editor Grant Buday nicely
nails down the subject as 'the bacteria van, the rolling nut-house,
the welfare wagon, the human cattle car. In other words—public
transit'." —The Toronto Star
Creative Non-Fiction
178 pp, 5 x 8
ISBN: 1-895636-29-1
$15.95 / $11.95 US
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