Canada is the second largest nation in the world, but its vastness is often a surprise, even to "lower" Canadians who live close to the southern border against the United States. The area north of the arctic tree line is largely uninhabited... except, that is, for the diverse communities of the Inuit.
The bold and often intricate sculptures of self-taught Inuit artists, created predominately from available stone and animal fur, sinew and bone, began to build a national and international reputation in the 1950s. The Art Gallery of Ontario has one of the world's largest collections of Inuit art, and it's showcased in the comprehensive, full-color Inuit Modern. Photographs of more than 175 works by 75 artists, with a variety of short but informative essays by historians, curators and the artists themselves, provide a definitive representation of the modern and evolving creative world of a people whose history has been primarily one of survival in a cold and harsh climate. --Bruce Jacobs, founding partner, Watermark Books & Cafe, Wichita, Kan.