Studio Ceramics in Canada (review)

This book is the result of Gail Crawford's passionate love for Canadian ceramics, and it shows. Crawford is an independent scholar who took it upon herself to travel the width of the country meeting and interviewing living ceramists, educators, curators, and collectors, and conducting archival research on historical figures. The result is a lively, rich text that illuminates the story of Canadian studio ceramics in its entirety. Every lavishly illustrated page contains a wealth of carefully detailed information.

Other publications have provided glimpses into the history of studio ceramics, but often they are either how-to guides geared towards ceramists or regional rather than national in scope. Here, for the first time, Crawford draws all the disparate figures, movements, organizations, forms, and techniques together. This is an impressive feat. Certainly there is disagreement among ceramists over who did what, when, and where, but Crawford successfully navigates this discord through her eye for detail. Despite regional and artistic politics she bravely provided her rough drafts to working ceramists for feedback, deftly blending the resulting commentary into her work.

The strength of Studio Ceramics in Canada is that it concentrates exclusively on studio ceramics. Although industrial or production ceramics such as Hycroft China and Medalta Ware are mentioned, they are discussed in terms of their influence on studio potters. In the case of Medalta, Crawford illuminates how the earliest professional studio potter in Alberta, Mary E. Young, worked from the Medalta factory in Medicine Hat in order to help fund her studio practice. The book examines how 'eight generations of clay devotees throughout the country' have influenced ceramics and is divided into eight sections. Chapter 1, 'Shaping the Legacy,' provides contextualization for the 'jumble of influences' that, against all odds, has resulted in a 'Canadian' ceramics legacy. Succeeding chapters examine the Atlantic Region, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia, and the Far North. In each chapter Crawford outlines key studio ceramists, educators, and organizations while providing the reader with clear indications of how each province related to the national and international ceramic scenes.

Crawford argues that one of the few overarching influences on Canadian ceramists is the British studio potter, 'the messiah of twentieth century studio pottery,' Bernard Leach. She successfully traces his influence throughout the book, proving how his views on ceramics were incorporated by potters such as Erica and Kjeld Deichmann in New Brunswick, Evelyn Charles of Toronto, and by 'the Pacific Coast coterie' who embraced Leach's views on 'respect for work centred on beauty and integrity, using functional forms.'

In a book of this scope there are limits to what can be covered. Crawford has done her best to focus upon key ceramists through the effective use of text boxes that highlight individual potters including Homer Lord, William Norman, Gaëtan Beaudin, Ann Roberts, Karen Dahl, Jeannie Mah, David Lambert, and Patrick Royle. A listing of over four hundred Canadian ceramists active in 2005 concludes the book. It is a shame that Crawford's extensive research has not been given enough space in the text – the endnotes and selected bibliography are surprisingly short. This will frustrate the growing number of ceramic history scholars; however, as she warns in her preface, exclusions are necessary to a project this enormous. There has been palpable excitement over this book in the Canadian craft world, and rightly so. Gail Crawford has provided the first scholarly exploration of the origins and manifestations of that elusive creature known as Canadian studio ceramics. It will surely inspire subsequent research.