Page 42 - Studio International - December 1974

Dan Graham Homes for America 1970
One-colour lithograph, 22 x 30 in.

It is a short step to actual book production, as about the sort of place a college of art ought
and since 1971 the Lithography Workshop has to be. Nova Scotia College of Art and Design
published books for lain Baxter, Lawrence emerges as a community addressing itself to the
Weiner, Gerald Ferguson, Gary Kennedy and problem of art without preconceptions as to the
Sol LeWitt as well as a sort of newsprint nature of its own role. The secret is not so much
magazine for Douglas Huebler and a booklet of the facilities as a sensitivity to the needs and
post-cards for Daniel Buren. These books hold opportunities of a cultural situation that may,
the somewhat indeterminate status of all such at one time, cause them to set up a lithography
publications, wavering between book-as-art and workshop, then to use it to publish books, then
book-presenting-information-as-art. Having once to set up their own press; also to seize on the
taken the plunge, however, it was a logical, if new medium of videotape and to produce
somewhat longer, step to found a College Press important work in that area, and then at the
publishing books-as-books-about-art. Its second behest of the Design Department, all to pack
production, Claes Oldenburg's Raw Notes brings their bags and move into old buildings of great
the track full-circle as the artist used the book historic importance on Halifax's waterfront that
itself boxed in a black vinyl case as a 'print' probably would not otherwise have survived.
with a sumptuous five-colour lithograph folded NSCAD is motivated by a spirit of self-criticism
in an adjacent pocket. and a sort of inspired opportunism that enables
The most important thing to say about it, over and over again, to mobilise at the
NSCAD prints is that they are important and of highest level the creative potentialities of an
high quality as art. They not only serve to make institution. This is what makes it a model
a good deal of contemporary art available within worthy of emulation.
an accessible traditional format, but in doing so,
extend and amplify both the meaning of the art
and the meaning of the format. They have
enjoyed considerable success: a touring
exhibition organised by the National Gallery
of Canada, a show at the Museum of Modern
Art in New York and substantial sales to
museums, commercial galleries and private
individuals across North America. None of this
can have done the school any harm, and Gerald
Ferguson, in that catalogue I quoted earlier,
goes on to list more educational benefits: 'The
Lithography Workshop is a professional activity
occurring in an institution that purports to be
[1] Gerald Ferguson, Introduction to Lithographs,
offering a professional education. It infuses the
Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, catalogue of
environment with a sense of professionalism.' exhibition circulated by the National Gallery of
This is no doubt true, and yet what seems Canada, 1971. p. 6.
most significant (beyond the quality of the [2] These prints, though produced in the
Lithography Workshop, were made as independent
work) is not so much what it has to say about
projects by the artists concerned and are not included
the conditions under which art should be taught in the shop's catalogue.