Irene Avaalaaqiaq has received commissions for public buildings from Churchill, Manitoba, to Minneapolis, to Ottawa. She has had solo exhibitions at the Isaacs/Innuit Gallery in Toronto and her work was included in a touring exhibition organized by the Baltimore Museum of Art. In 1999 she had a solo exhibition at the Macdonald Stewart Art Centre at the University of Guelph and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws from that institute.

Judith Nasby is curator emerita of the Art Gallery of Guelph. During her career as the gallery's founding director/curator, she developed the museum's collection and established the Donald Forster Sculpture Park. Nasby has lectured and toured exhibitions on four continents and is an adjunct professor fine art at the University of Guelph. She is the author of Irene Avaalaaqiaq: Myth and Reality; Rolph Scarlett: Painter, Designer, Jeweller; The Making of a Museum; and is co-author with Craig Pearson of The Cultivated Landscape: An Exploration of Art and Agriculture. She has contributed to several books and exhibition catalogues and to a variety of periodicals, including Canadian Collector, Historic Guelph, and Inuit Art Quarterly. She lives in Guelph, Ontario.

Judith Nasby's profile page

"The story of Avaalaaqiaq's life and her capacity to draw creative inspiration from it not only makes compelling reading, it makes an important contribution to the documentation of the history of the indigenous peoples of the Canadian arctic. Through a mix of art historical analysis, social/cultural background and, most importantly, the artist's own voice, this book convincingly demonstrates how personal biography and Inuit oral traditions have been used by Avaalaaqiaq to create a powerful and distinctive new art, where indeed myth and reality intersect." Marie Routledge, Associate Curator, Inuit Art, National Gallery of Canada "This is the first comprehensive biography of Irene Avaalaaqiaq. The historical context in which the material is presented is innovative and makes a fresh contribution to the subject." Sandra Barz, Arts and Culture of the North, New York City