Eric Cameron is a major contemporary Canadian artist. Born in 1935 in Leicester, England, he arrived in Canada in the 1970s and has taught at the University of Guelph, the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, and at the University of Calgary. Over the years Cameron has also continued to work in his primary medium, painting, but moved from traditional figuration to a highly conceptual practice with both his process paintings and his "thick" paintings. He has also expanded into video and has written a great deal about his work. His inspired teaching and unusual art have been recognized with major awards, including the Victor Lynch-Staunton Award (1993), the Gershorn Iskowitz Prize (1994), and the Governor General's Award (2004).

Despite Cameron's prominence, much of the writing about him to date, primarily essays in exhibition catalogues, is by the artist himself. Cover and Uncover thus makes a major contribution to the field as it explores in depth Eric Cameron's art and philosophy. The book is composed of four essays, each covering a different aspect of Cameron's art, starting with Peggy Gale's analysis of his writing, then turning to Ann Davis's consideration of his process paintings and his philosophy, moving to Diana Nemiroff's review of his videos, and concluding with Thierry de Duve's observations on his Thick Paintings and his blind rejection of chance. The essays, though written independently, resonate with each other so that the reader comes away with a full picture of a complex artist, his life, his thought, his art production, and how these elements inform each other and have evolved through time. The expert commentary here, richly illustrated with Cameron's works in multiple media, provides a vital and long overdue critical lens through which to view this important artist.

With Contributions By: Ann Davis Thierry de Duve Peggy Gale Diana Nemiroff

Anne Davies, PhD, has worked in most Canadian provinces, in American states, and overseas. She works with educators at every level—primary to post-secondary, as well as with parents. Anne is involved with schools and jurisdictions in multi-year projects, working closely with local educators. This allows her to help people find assessment-for-learning solutions that work in a specific context. Anne does sessions at home in the Comox Valley, and works with educators in various locations to provide workshops to meet local needs. She also works with professional development and instructional leaders. Anne has written and produced numerous multimedia resources and books, including Making Classroom Assessment Work and co-authoring the Knowing What Counts series. Her newest project is a multimedia resource titled The Facilitator's Guide to Classroom Assessment (K–12).

Ann Davis' profile page

La Torontoise Peggy Gale est une auteure et conservatrice indépendante dont les écrits sur l'art contemporain, principalement la vidéo, sont devenus des références dans le milieu de l'art. Elle a publié des textes dans les ouvrages Video by Artists (1976, 1986), Mirror Machine : Video and Identity (1995) et Lectures obliques (1999), sans compter les nombreux catalogues de musées auxquels elle a collaboré et son recueil d'essais Videotexts paru en 1995. En plus de collaborer à des expositions. Peggy Gale en a organisé de nombreuses, dont Videoscape (Musée des beaux-arts de l'Ontario, 1974-1975), la XIVe Biennale internationalle de São Paulo (1977). Electronic Landscapes (Musée des beaux-arts du Canada, 1989), la première Biennale de l'image en mouvement (Madrid, 1990) et Tout le temps/Every Time (la Biennale de Montréal, 2000). En 2006, Peggy Gale a obtenu le Prix du Gouverneur général en arts visuels et en arts médiatiques.

Peggy Gale's profile page

Diana Nemiroff is a Canadian curator and art historian in the field of contemporary art. She holds an MA in art history from Concordia University where she was awarded the Alfred E. Pinsky Medal for the highest-ranking graduating student in the Faculty of Fine Arts. In 2012, she was the recipient of a Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts. Nemiroff has held positions as director of Carleton University Art Gallery, senior curator at the National Gallery of Canada, and also held assistant and associate curator positions with the Gallery. She has numerous exhibitions to her credit, including the ground-breaking Land, Spirit, Power: First Nations at the National Gallery of Canada (1992), National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (co-curated with Robert Houle and Charlotte Townsend-Gault), which was the National Gallery's first major exhibition featuring the accomplishments of a new generation of Aboriginal artists; Crossings / Traversées (1998), National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; and Melvin Charney and Kzrysztof Wodiczko (1986) for the 42nd Venice Biennale.

Diana Nemiroff's profile page

Thierry de Duve is a historian, curator, teacher, and theorist of contemporary art. Born in Belgium, he has been a visiting professor at University of Lille III and the Sorbonne, among others, and has authored numerous books, including Kant after Duchamp (1996).

Thierry de Duve's profile page