Art + Design / Indigenous Art + Culture
Dempsey Bob
In His Own Voice
Dempsey Bob; Foreword by co-curator Sarah Milroy. In collaboration with the McMichael Canadian Art Collection & the Audain Art Museum
BC Bestseller of 2022
Buy Book
BC Bestseller of 2022
Buy BookWe get our clans and our traditional names and also our songs from our mother’s side of the family. That’s how we get our crests.
—Bob Dempsey
Dempsey Bob: In His Own Voice is based on the first full-scale solo museum exhibition of this extraordinary Tahltan-Tlingit artist, one of the finest living carvers of the Northwest Coast. Drawing from extensive interviews with the artist by the exhibition’s co-curator, Sarah Milroy, the book presents the story of his life told his own way, including extensive and intimate reflections on the creation of particular works. Gorgeous photographs of the artworks, which are drawn from key private collections in Canada and public collections in Canada, the US and beyond, are supplemented with material from his sketchbooks to create a vivid portrait of the creative process.
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“Dempsey Bob’s book […] has teachings for us mere mortals, warnings of cultures being lost, of the importance of passing on our values, of how stories are teachers and have meanings, and how we need to pay attention to those stories before it is too late.”
“The show is accompanied by a remarkable book, Dempsey Bob: In His Own Voice, that is both glossy and homespun in the best possible ways.”
“The book’s glossy photographs of gorgeous carvings by Bob, who is of Tahltan and Tlingit descent, are accompanied by engaging first-person stories about his life.”
Art Books 2022