The Memory of Pain
Images of struggle and conflict, the prints present a dense overlay between the manner in which pain and suffering leave their scars on a family, and on the human race.
Tom Smart, from his description for the exhibition The Memory of Pain.
The Mutability of Knowing
The Mutability of Knowing is a suite of eight etchings derived from Dan Steeves’ life-long relationship with the Bay of Fundy. Created using lithographic tusche washes etched on zinc plates, they explore the expansive flats of the Tantramar marsh and the ever-changing nature of sky and water which characterize the Fundy Basin.
Tantramar Gothic
His haunting imagery replete with enigma, decay, hereditary curses and secrets interfaces with Gothic fiction. And yet something tangible and buoyant turns this reading on its head.
Olexander Wlasenko from his essay Tantramar Gothic.
The Light That Lives in Darkness
Why do we return to the shore? Maybe it’s because in a world like ours where so much changes — political and economic realities, our jobs, and our families, even our bodies — the shore will still be there.
Mark Harris, from the letterpress bookwork The Light That Lives in Darkness
(The Light That Lives in Darkness is also available in limited edition letterpress book form.)
Things We Put on a Hill
“Everything” wrote the French philosopher Gaston Bachelaard,“Comes alive when contradictions accumulate.” The prints of Dan Steeves have long been fecund places where paradox and contradiction abound.
Gil McElroy, from his essay Things We Put on a Hill.
The Bone Fields
A fundamental of the impulse to myth-making is the belief in the primacy of human creation to give form to the chaos of nature.
Tom Smart, from his essay The Bone Fields.
The Vault
Darling, let’s build a house, We’ll build it of stone and love, We’ll make it stronger than a fortress, but warm enough for the coldest winter.
Micah Vierling, from his ballad Build a House.