Spirit of Nova Scotia: Traditional Decorative Folk Art 1780-1930

Dean Tudor is a journalism professor at the Ryerson Polytechnical
Institute and founding editor of the CBRA.

This catalogue, co-published by a museum and a commercial publisher, contains 295 items, with a photograph of each. Collectively, the catalogue represents the touring collection for 1986 and 1987 that was organized and circulated by the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, supported by the National Museums of Canada. The first exhibit was at the Gallery in 1976, and this provided the foundation for the collection that has since been built up. Recently, there have been many books on folk art in Canada. Since 1983 Michael Bird, Blake McKendry, and others have put out books, finding aids, and catalogues for both provincial and federal museum exhibits. This particular catalogue is a welcome addition to the field, particularly since in addition to covering textiles, sculptures, paintings and utilitarian objects, it also covers items with a ship motif, showing the influence of the sea. Each section or topic is introduced by a short essay, and then the specific catalogue begins. Each item is photographed in black and white (24 colour plates are added), followed by a full description of name of object, creator, place and date of creation, structure, dimensions, and a note on its permanent residence. A very useful book indeed.