"Ink and paper are my muses. Using hand press printing and printers' ink to create original prints has absorbed me for the last 47 years. I love the qualities of all papers, especially fine rag papers and washi papers. Their tactile and soft surfaces beg to receive ink and I am always happy to oblige them."
-- George A. Walker

George A. Walker is one of Canada's foremost woodcut artists. Over the past 40 years Walker has created more than 1,000 wood engravings to illustrate seven wordless books and countless prints covering subjects ranging from literary works to half-remembered dreams, to historical figures and events.

Ink and Paper is a collection of the best of Walker's work from the 1970s to the present. The book is a complete survey of his career, with over 250 prints -- including many from his wordless novels about important figures in Canadian art, politics and history -- as well as photos of Walker's handmade limited edition books. Each carefully selected image, complete in itself, is paired on the facing page with a complementary image that enhances the visual experience. Ink and Paper is capped with an afterword by Tom Smart, curator, essayist and director of the Beaverbrook Art Gallery.

Walker attributes his fascination with woodcuts and their use in wordless novels to attending an exhibition featuring the work of Frans Masereel, the first master of the wordless novel. After the exhibition he began an obsessive pursuit to find books illustrated with woodcuts, wood engravings and linocuts, and to learn everything he could about fine art printmaking and the art of wood engraving.

The result of that obsession is a four-decade career and an astounding body of work -- celebrated here for the first time in this gorgeous retrospective.

George A. Walker is an award-winning wood engraver, book artist and author whose courses in book arts and printmaking at OCAD University in Toronto, where he is Associate Professor, have been offered continuously since 1985. His artworks are held in collections ranging from the Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto, The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, and The Museum of Modern Art (MoMa), New York City and he has had over 15 solo exhibitions as well as been included in more than 100 group shows. Among many book projects-both trade and limited edition-Walker has illustrated 2 hand-printed books by internationally acclaimed author Neil Gaiman. Walker also illustrated the first Canadian edition of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass, both published by the Cheshire Cat Press. The Cheshire Cat Press is a partnership between Andy Malcolm and George Walker which continues to publish limited edition books featuring the writing of Lewis Carroll.

George Walker was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Art in 2002 for his contribution to the cultural area of Book Arts. He is also a member of the Arts and Letters Club of Toronto where he was featured in a solo exhibition of his books and printmaking in the spring of 2019. Walker's latest book-length project presents the iconic life of Hollywood silent-film star Mary Pickford in a suite of 87 wood engravings.

George A. Walker's profile page

Canada's foremost woodcut artist is celebrated in this career retrospective featuring 250 prints. Walker is well-known for his book-length, wordless works on influential Canadians such as Leonard Cohen, Pierre Trudeau, and Conrad Black -- each rendered completely in hand-press-printed woodblock illustrations. Ink and Paper features these unique projects in depth, alongside dozens of stand-alone pieces collected for the first time.

Quill and Quire

For nearly 50 years (and more than 1,000 wood engravings) Canada's pre-eminent woodcut artist has created narratives to illustrate important figures in Canadian art, politics and history, as well as the literary works of others (Neil Gaiman); this book is a fitting retrospective.

Globe and Mail

The images are fabulous. Ink and Paper will appeal to anyone interested in contemporary Canadian art, printmaking, wordless narrative story-telling and book arts. Whether viewed as stand-alone prints or sequential visual narratives, Walker's handprinted black and white relief print images tell fascinating, interesting and important stories.

Book Arts arts du livre Canada