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Dark Chapters: Reading the Still Lives of David Garneau
A singular collection of responses to the still life paintings of acclaimed artist David Garneau
Dark Chapters brings together 17 poets, fiction writers, curators, and critics to engage with the works of David Garneau, the Governor General’s Award-winning Métis artist. Featuring paintings from Garneau’s still life series “Dark Chapters” alongside poetry, fiction, critical analysis, and autotheory, the book includes contributions from Fred Wah, Paul Seesequasis, Jesse Wente, Lillian Allen, Billy-Ray Belcourt, Larissa Lai, Susan Musgrave, and more.
A nod to the Reports of Truth and Reconciliation Commission, in which Justice Murray Sinclair describes the residential school system as “one of the darkest, most troubling chapters in our nation’s history,” Garneau’s still life paintings combine common objects (books, bones, teacups, mirrors) and less familiar ones (a Métis sash, a stone hammer, a braid of sweetgrass) to reflect the complexity of contemporary Indigenous experiences. Provocative titles like “Métis in the Academy” and “Smudge Before Reading” invite consideration of the mixed influences and loyalties faced by Indigenous students and scholars. Other paintings explore colonialism, vertical and lateral violence, Christian influence on traditional knowledge, and museum treatment of Indigenous belongings.
Rooted in Garneau’s life-long engagement at the intersections of visual art and writing, Dark Chapters presents a multifaceted reflection on the work of an inimitable, unparalleled artist.
Includes contributions from Arin Fay, Billy-Ray Belcourt, Cecily Nicholson, David Howes, Dick Averns, Fred Wah, Jeff Derksen, Jesse Wente, John G. Hampton, Larissa Lai, Lillian Allen, Paul Seesequasis, Peter Morin, Rita Bouvier, Susan Musgrave, Tarene Thomas, and Trevor Herriot.
Dark Chapters brings together 17 poets, fiction writers, curators, and critics to engage with the works of David Garneau, the Governor General’s Award-winning Métis artist. Featuring paintings from Garneau’s still life series “Dark Chapters” alongside poetry, fiction, critical analysis, and autotheory, the book includes contributions from Fred Wah, Paul Seesequasis, Jesse Wente, Lillian Allen, Billy-Ray Belcourt, Larissa Lai, Susan Musgrave, and more.
A nod to the Reports of Truth and Reconciliation Commission, in which Justice Murray Sinclair describes the residential school system as “one of the darkest, most troubling chapters in our nation’s history,” Garneau’s still life paintings combine common objects (books, bones, teacups, mirrors) and less familiar ones (a Métis sash, a stone hammer, a braid of sweetgrass) to reflect the complexity of contemporary Indigenous experiences. Provocative titles like “Métis in the Academy” and “Smudge Before Reading” invite consideration of the mixed influences and loyalties faced by Indigenous students and scholars. Other paintings explore colonialism, vertical and lateral violence, Christian influence on traditional knowledge, and museum treatment of Indigenous belongings.
Rooted in Garneau’s life-long engagement at the intersections of visual art and writing, Dark Chapters presents a multifaceted reflection on the work of an inimitable, unparalleled artist.
Includes contributions from Arin Fay, Billy-Ray Belcourt, Cecily Nicholson, David Howes, Dick Averns, Fred Wah, Jeff Derksen, Jesse Wente, John G. Hampton, Larissa Lai, Lillian Allen, Paul Seesequasis, Peter Morin, Rita Bouvier, Susan Musgrave, Tarene Thomas, and Trevor Herriot.
176 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 25, 2025
About the author
Nic Wilson
11 books3 followersNic Wilson is a writer, editor and Guardian country diarist. Her non-fiction nature memoir, Land Beneath the Waves, is due to be published by Summersdale (Hachette) in June 2025. She has nearly 30 years’ writing experience spanning academia, education, journalism and narrative non-fiction.
Nic works for BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine and has contributed to national magazines, journals and anthologies including Under the Changing Skies: The Best of The Guardian Country Diaries 2018-2024 (2024), Going to Ground: An Anthology of Nature and Place (2024), Moving Mountains (2023), described as a ‘first-of-its-kind’ anthology of nature writing by disabled and chronically ill writers, and Women on Nature (2021).
Nic works for BBC Gardeners’ World Magazine and has contributed to national magazines, journals and anthologies including Under the Changing Skies: The Best of The Guardian Country Diaries 2018-2024 (2024), Going to Ground: An Anthology of Nature and Place (2024), Moving Mountains (2023), described as a ‘first-of-its-kind’ anthology of nature writing by disabled and chronically ill writers, and Women on Nature (2021).
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March 11, 2026Many years have passed since I first saw an exhibition of still-life paintings by the Governor General’s Award-winning Métis artist David Garneau. But the memory of that small pop-up show still casts a spell over me. His images of rocks suspended on strings felt like Zen koans: puzzles without answers, only mysteries to ponder.
Now, with the publication of Dark Chapters: Reading the Still Lives of David Garneau—in which 17 diverse writers, critics and curators respond to Garneau’s recent series of still-life paintings—I finally have some answers, riddled, of course, with an ever-growing number of questions....
Review by Agnieszka Matejko
Full review at: https://albertaviews.ca/dark-chapters/
Now, with the publication of Dark Chapters: Reading the Still Lives of David Garneau—in which 17 diverse writers, critics and curators respond to Garneau’s recent series of still-life paintings—I finally have some answers, riddled, of course, with an ever-growing number of questions....
Review by Agnieszka Matejko
Full review at: https://albertaviews.ca/dark-chapters/
Displaying 1 of 1 review