Algonquin

£25.00

A seven-day canoe trip in Algonquin Provincial Park Ontario, August 2003

Artist’s book, 24 pages, 15.2 x 21 cm, printed in full colour on Arctic Volume white 200 gsm, hand sewn, typeset in Joanna

SKU: ALQ Category:

Published by East Port, editor Kay Syrad, March 2008, Printed by Van den Eynde, Belgium; Design: Chris Drury and Peter Foolen; Limited edition of 500 copies, signed and numbered

The Algonquin group of languages is thought to be eleven thousand years old. It is spoken by tribes in an area that encompasses North Dakota through Michigan and up through Manitoba and Quebec. Around 2000 BC a written language evolved which had its beginnings as bite marks on bark.

‘I experimented biting pieces of birch bark and found that if you fold the bark loosely and then bite the fold, you create a line, which must have formed the basis of a cuneiform writing. For each of the seven days I collected one piece of bark and kept notes as to things seen, heard and sensed. The result is this small hand sewn publication; the first in what we hope will be many East Port publications.’ C.D.