Joyce Wieland: A Life in Art

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian Studies at
Concordia University and an avid outdoor recreationist. She is the
author of several books, including The Mountain Is Moving: Japanese
Women’s Lives, Kurlek and Margaret Laurence: T

In this thoughtful, well-researched biography, Iris Nowell attempts to
leave no stone unturned as she presents the flamboyant and passionate
life of Toronto artist Joyce Wieland.

Wieland arrived on the Toronto art scene during the tumultuous years of
the 1960s and 1970s, as abstract expressionists struggled to find their
niche within a more traditional art scene. Nowell’s 1992 memoir, Hot
Breakfast for Sparrows: My Life with Harold Town, set that scene well.
Wieland came out of what she herself called “Dickensian” poverty.
With talent and determination, she rose to international fame as a
painter, quiltmaker, film director, and collagist. Her themes included
feminism, sexuality, history, patriotism, and the environment. Her
materials included toys, paper, wood, and glass, as well as oils,
watercolors, and pencils. She was a strong supporter of women’s
rights. A delicious sense of humor led Wieland to hide secrets about
friends and relatives in her images. Nowell has uncovered many of these
through interviews. The biographer’s style is energetic and informal.
Sources are well documented in endnotes and a bibliography. Eight
full-color pages of Wieland’s work, and 16 pages of black-and-white
photographs of the artist, family, and friends, complement a thorough
and satisfying portrait of this pioneering artist.