Untitled (flapflapflap) is a flip-book comprised of a series of photographs shot with an early, lo-res, digital camera of my hands gesturing animatedly while I was talking to my young children. At that time they were learning French from their father and English from me. In our aural landscape of accented official languages, baby gurgles, and toddler-franglais I delighted more than ever in the way touch and gesture assured we all understood each other. When the images are “played” as a flip-book, the hands appear to take off in flight. On the cover a feathery block of text contains bird sounds from National Geographic Society Field Guide to the Birds of North America, 1987 mixed up with infant sounds/words. This mix is framed by a short English text and its translation into French (“Stop searching through your big French-English dictionary, hold it over your head and flap its pages into your upturned face. When at last you set it down, feel how your hands lift right up.”). Sources are listed on the back cover. The book was originally published as part of a boxed set of book projects (edition of 20), in conjunction with the Crows project, Ace Art, Winnipeg. Crows was curated by Angela Somerset and Marian Butler and included individual book-related objects by eight artists and writers.

More info: karileefuglem.com (online Spring 2012); Crows set: www.aceart.org

Originally from BC and living in Montreal since 1989, Karilee Fuglem makes art that is informed by a heightened sensitivity to the subtleties of nonverbal communication that underscores life in a bilingual city. Sometimes constructed with thread nearly as invisible as the space it describes, or familiar materials made magical by being re-imagined, her artwork speaks a subterranean language of light, movement and visceral sensation. It is rooted in a spatial, historical and geographical understanding of the environment in which it is situated. Fuglem makes artist books in parallel to her installations, drawings, sculpture and video work, using formats which elicit a physical understanding of text- and image-based research. Her work has been widely exhibited, most recently in the 2011 Montreal Biennial. In 2010 she presented Conversations with Light and Air at Two Rivers Gallery, Prince George, BC as well as Steady Streams, Living Rooms at Rodman Hall St Catharines, Ontario. Other site-specific installations include the MacLaren Art Centre, Barrie, Ontario (2009), Koffler Gallery, Toronto (2008), the Darling Foundry, Montreal (2006), Oakville Galleries, Ontario (2003) and Southern Alberta Art Gallery (2001). Her work is in collections at the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, the Musée National des beaux-arts du Québec, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, as well as private collections, and is represented by Pierre-François Ouellette art contemporain.

Ace Art Books was conceived as a program to facilitate the transition of artists’ production into an agile medium — bookworks, cassettes, digital media, “multiples” — for circulation to a wider audience outside the context of a regular exhibition or event. Their design aims for multiplicity and portability. Over the past four years, the gallery has functioned as a production/presentation facility, providing varying degrees of technical, conceptual and editorial assistance. The publications are produced by a variety of means, with artists incorporating handmade, mechanical and digital techniques. A permanent display / reading / perusing area has been created as part of the aceartinc. Resource Centre and the bookworks are available for purchase at the gallery