An eighty-year overview of wood and argillite carving by Indigenous women artists on the Northwest Coast.

Though women of the Northwest Coast have long carved poles, canoes, panels, and masks, many of these artists have not become as well known outside their communities as their male counterparts. These artists are cherished within their communities for helping to keep traditional carving practices alive, and for maintaining the dances, songs, and ceremonies that are intertwined with visual art production. This book, and an associated exhibition at the Audain Art Museum, gathers a range of sculptural formats by Indigenous women in order to expand the discourse of carving in the region.

Both the exhibition and publication are co-curated by Dana Claxton, artist, filmmaker and head of the University of British Columbia's Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory; and Dr. Curtis Collins, the AAM's Director & Chief Curator. Commentaries by Skeena Reece, Claxton, and Marika Swan, and interviews with artists Dale Campbell and Mary Anne Barkhouse are presented alongside more than one hundred artworks from public and private collections across North America, including several newly commissioned pieces.

Featured artists include:
- Ellen Neel (Kwakwaka'wakw, 1916-1966) - Freda Diesing (Haida, 1925-2002) - Doreen Jensen (Gitxsan, 1933-2009) - Susan Point (Musqueam, b. 1952) - Dale Campbell (Tahltan, b. 1954) - Marianne Nicolson (Kwakwaka'wakw, b. 1969) - Arlene Ness (Gitxsan, b. 1970s) - Melanie Russ (Haida, b. 1977) - Marika Swan (Nuu-chah-nulth, b. 1982) - Morgan Asoyuf (Ts'msyen, b. 1984) - Cori Savard (Haida, b. 1985) - Cherish Alexander (Gitwangak, b. 1987) - Stephanie Anderson (Wetsuwet'en, b. 1991) - Veronica Waechter (Gitxsan, b. 1995)

Dana Claxton is a Canadian interdisciplinary artist of Lakota Sioux descent. Her work includes film and video, installation and performance art, and centres on concerns of beauty, justice, autonomy and spirit. She is represented in public collections, has been shown internationally, and has received numerous awards including the VIVA Award from the Doris and Jack Shadbolt Foundation for her commitment to contemporary art in Vancouver; and in 2007 became an Eiteljorg Fellow sponsored by the Ford Foundation. She has held positions as Adjunct Professor at Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design, Vancouver; Assistant Professor in the Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver; 2009/10 Ruth Wynn Woodward Endowed Chair in Women's Studies at Simon Fraser University, Burnaby; and was a founding director of the Indigenous Media Arts Group, Vancouver.

Dana Claxton's profile page

Curtis Collins' profile page

Skeena Reece's profile page

Marika Echachis Swan's profile page