The Landscape of Craft

Terrence Paris is Public Services Librarian at Mount St. Vincent
University in Halifax.

Nancy Bauer, in her introduction, observes that the New Brunswick Crafts
Council is unique in its effectiveness when compared to comparable
bodies across Canada. Former New Brunswick Premier Richard Hatfield was
notable among politicians for his interest in the arts and for his
acknowledgment of the contribution that artists make to the definition
of a region.

Each of the book’s eight sections is devoted to an artistic principle
(form, line, pattern, shape, texture, color, rhythm, and content); each
is prefaced by a photograph of a New Brunswick landscape, to suggest the
manner in which the spirit of place inspires the principle; and each
reproduces in black-and-white and color photographs the objects
encompassing the principle.

To Bauer, crafts are “objects of art, in which beauty is combined
with perfect skill and sometimes, but not always, with satisfying
utility.” She includes works such as large sculptures (but not
paintings), along with the more usual ceramics, fabrics, and works in
metal, wood, and glass.

The book is attractively designed by editor Fry with Julie Scriver, and
each piece carefully photographed by McBride to ensure that its special
qualities emerge to full advantage. It is regrettable that the one
instance of poor printing is the blurred photograph of a raku sculpture
by Tom Smith on the front cover. The book’s value as a visual tribute
to the skill and imagination of New Brunswick craftspeople might have
been enhanced by the inclusion of biographies in the text.