Canada's ceramists, tapestry weavers, and other craft artists are recognized amongst the world's finest artisans. Craft Perception and Practice celebrates the excellence of Canadian crafts by bringing together twenty-four essays and critical commentaries by sixteen independent critics and curators, professional artists, art historians, and studio art instructors. Highly readable texts by internationally published authors Glenn Allison, Amy Gogarty, Paula Gustafson, Paul Mathieu, Gil McElroy, and Anne McPherson—as well as by noted Canadian painter Mary Pratt—discuss the conceptual, social, and cultural significance of craft media, engage linguistic and feminist theories, and consider aspects of tactile, sensual, and tacit knowledge in the context of works by a distinguished group of Canadian craft artists that includes Prix Saidye Bronfman Award winners Steven Heinemann and Léopold L. Foulem. The inaugural edition of a three-volume series, Craft Perception and Practice features substantive writing about contemporary Canadian craft presented at conferences, in national and international periodicals, and in exhibition catalogues during the past decade. Illustrated with 37 full-page colour photographs. Indexed."This important volume promises to provoke critical discussion on the personal, social, and aesthetic programs of artists who work in craft media."—Dr. Stephen Inglis, Director General of Research, Canadian Museum of Civilization

Paula Gustafson, who passed away in July 2006, was both a contributor to and the editor of Craft Perception and Practice Volumes I, II and III. She was the well-known editor of Canada's award-winning magazine Artichoke: Writings about the Visual Arts and a regular contributor to other visual art magazines in Canada, Australia, England and Hong Kong. A life-long craft advocate and activist, she received the first Jean A. Chalmers Fund for the Crafts award for critical writing about contemporary Canadian crafts. She is the author of Salish Weaving, a definitive study of Northwest Coast textiles, published by UBC Press. In 2005, she edited A Brush with Life, an autobiography of Vancouver artist John Koerner. Gustafson lectured extensively and participated in forums and conferences, sharing her experience in the Canadian publishing industry and extensive knowledge of art and craft. She did much to bring about a new perspective on craft through her writing and publishing.

Paula Gustafson's profile page

“An attractive, affordable, and accessible compilation of well written, well illustrated, and well researched essays.” — The Craft Factor