NASBY, Judith, 2002 Irene Avaalaaqiaq: Myth and Reality, Montreal and Kingston, McGill-Queen’s University Press, 128 pages.

Baker Lake artists are well-known for their prints, sculpture and wall hangings and several catalogues featuring Baker Lake art have been published. Biographies or retrospectives about Baker Lake artists have been written about Jessie Oonark (Blodgett and Bouchard 1986), Victoria Mamnguqsualuk (Moore 1986) and now Irene Avaalaaqiaq (Nasby 2002). Ruth Annaqtuusi Tulurialik (Tulurialik and Pelly 1986) and Simon Tookoome (Tookoome with Oberman 1999) have each co-authored a book about their art and stories while to this day, Armand Tagoona is perhaps the only Baker Lake artist and author to have his name appear alone on the front cover of his book (see Tagoona 1975). Nasby’s book is comparable to those Inuit art books that provide a greater emphasis on history. An example of how Nasby presents one of the 28 art works in this book is her discussion about a wall hanging titled “Woman Alone” (plate 12). The art work and the artist’s depictions are described and some of the artist’s commentaries are included. Themes in the artist’s work are touched upon and the artist recalls seeing an ijiraq, a caribou that can speak like a human. Further comments by the artist not already incorporated in the text about the plates are in Appendix 1: Information about Plates. The remainder of the book includes appendices which are additional quotes by the artist about her art works; “Exhibitions and Honours” listing solo and select group exhibitions; and an Honorary Degree citation by the Dean of Arts of the University of Guelph; as well as an address by Irene Avaalaaqiaq at the University of Guelph convocation. From cover to cover the colour illustrations are, of course, central. The Macdonald Stewart Art Centre at the University of Guelph commissioned nine art works for their collection. These art works were featured with some of Avaalaaqiaq’s other works in a solo exhibition and are featured in this book. The selection of photographs cannot be overlooked. There are early photographs of the small community of Baker Lake, an embroidered cloth bag collected in 1922 with motifs similar to Avaalaaqiaq’s stitch, Avaalaaqiaq’s adoptive father Siksigaq in 1950, to current photographs of Avaalaaqiaq the hunter, and Avaalaaqiaq posing in front of her favourite wall hanging. Like most other books on Inuit art, a general map is included. Avaalaaqiaq’s birthplace is shown on the map, but places mentioned such as Qingaugattuaq where Avaalaaqiaq fell into the water, Mallery Lake and Timanaqtuarjuk where Avaalaaqiaq used to live, a river crossing at Anitguq, and Qiqitarjualik where Avaalaaqiaq and her family travelled, are places not indicated on the map. Either a description of the locations mentioned or a map indicating these places is important for the reader who wants a better sense of where Avaalaaqiaq travelled and what cultural group she belongs to. The only chapter in this book is entitled “Where Myth and Reality Intersect.” The author states that “Avaalaaqiaq’s art is grounded within the realm of storytelling and her life’s experience. Myth and reality intersect as she translates multi-layered stories, transformation scenes, and personal memories into bold graphic imagery” (p. 3). Nasby is careful to quote the artist in saying that Avaalaaqiaq’s art is based on stories her grandmother used to tell her. “[She] did them out of memory” (p. 33). Indeed the stories depicted in her art are not “myth” to Avaalaaqiaq, but her reality. As Norman Zepp explain: “What we call the ‘imaginary’ in literature—the supernatural, fantastic, magical, marvellous; apparition, vision, dream, hallucination; grotesque combinations of human and non human—was simply not seen as “imagined” by the ancestors of today’s Inuit; and even now, some Inuit continue …