Six Posters Promoting Canadian Literature, 1976

In 1973, I met Delores Broten and Peter Birdsall in Toronto. They were the founders of the Canadian Research Group, CANLIT, based at York University. Over the next three years, the Toronto-based illustrator, William (Bill) Arthur Kimber (WAK), and I, designed a few reports, research papers and a series of posters promoting Canadian literature for CANLIT.

These posters are 26 x 20 inches. They were screen-printed in deep grey and deep red on either beige or grey card. The posters neatly balance Bill’s skill at figure drawing and other realistic representational details with my sense of design and abstract patterning. It was a challenging and enjoyable project and collaboration.

CANLIT sold these posters, mostly to libraries, across Canada. I recall seeing a framed set of them high on a wall above stacks of books in the Canadian fiction section of the Central Library of Vancouver in the mid 1970s.