Bill Reid and Beyond: Expanding on Modern Native Art

A fresh perspective from Haida leaders, art and cultural historians, anthropologists and artists on the lasting legacy of the famed Haida artist Bill Reid.

Bill Reid's work has long been acknowledged for its astute and eloquent analysis of Haida tradition, and for the paradox of making modern art from the old Haida stories. It expanded the understanding of Haida art and ideas, complicated notions of authenticity and tradition, and helped to make the so-called "renaissance" of Northwest Coast Native art visible to all.

The book's twenty authors write from many perspectives, breaking down boundaries between art history and anthropology, between academic and artist, between colleague and politician. Authors, artists and important voices from the Haida Nation show how Reid became a hero and what kept him a maverick, contribute personal reminiscences that add new dimensions to Reid's public persona, share how they learned from Reid, and project what lies "beyond" as a result of Reid's legacy.

This book contributes to the ongoing exchange of ideas about modern art -- debates that Reid's life work helped bring to world attention.

Karen Duffek is an award-winning writer whose publications include Bill Reid: Beyond the Essential Form and The Transforming Image: Painted Arts of Northwest Coast First Nations. She is the curator of art at the UBC Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver. Charlotte Townsend-Gault is an associate professor in the University of British Columbia’s Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory. She has written extensively on First Nations art in books, catalogues and journals, and she was co-curator of Land, Spirit, Power: First Nations at the National Gallery of Canada in 1992.