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It represents not only an important
statement about languages - especially
indigenous language - but Arcand also
offers an invitation to discover her own
exploration and struggle to learn her
community's language of Plains Cree as a
way "to bring awareness to the precarious
state of many Indegenous languages." The
messages can be read by those who know
the Cree alphabet, but are also addressed
to those who cannot. Arcand's use of the
vernacular language introduces a subtle
humour by appropriating these common
elements, past and present, found in our
western environments. This subtle and
intelligent humour is also found in the
small poster of her Cree “Comic Sans”
alphabet, as if suggesting that there would
be a serif version of the Cree alphabet.
joitarcand.com

Artists at the UQAM Centre de design
Visual artist Robert Fones has been
working with letterforms and typography
Robert Fones, Tive/Tate/Tile, 1997, Casein on wood, throughout his career. He has often used
plywood shelf, 97,15 × 91,44 × 30,48 cm, letterforms for their historical references,
Photo credit: Peter MacCallum
overlaid with photographic images that
suggest a narrative separate from the
historical association of the typeface.
Often these photographic images are
restricted or cut off by the outline of the
letterform, as if the letterform were a
window through which one is looking
at a historical narrative. For Fones, the
typeface and the image are both vehicles
for cultural forms traveling through time,
each with its own historical origin and
associations. Fones has employed various
strategies for disrupting the recognisability
of letterforms or the process of reading.
These strategies range from increasing
the size of type to a monumental scale,
and rotating letterforms and painting
them with colours based on their forms,
to allowing letters in text to flow together
or be arbitrarily disjointed. Through these
devices, Fones hopes to draw attention
Klaus Scherübel, Reconsidering Jack Torrance’s All Work and No Play, 2006-2008, to the inherent message carried by both
Exhibition view, Künstlerhaus, Halle für Kunst & Medien, Graz, Autriche, 2016 the typeface, the photographic image
Photo credit: M.K. (if used), and the text itself that he often
draws from literary sources. He also wants
to allow the viewer to become aware of
important historical precedents in the An in situ work in the UQAM Design their own interpretation of the combined
form of printed books, as well as an pavilion staircase and at VOX forms that are presented to them.
extensive documentation. The curators Cree artist Joi T. Arcand contributes to Photographer Angela Grauerholz
consider the production of exhibitions the exhibition with the work, Don't Speak appropriates examples of characters found
to be part of their practice and have English, which incorporates vinyl lettering in a catalogue published by the Imprimerie
therefore included their own work in the applied to the staircase of UQAM's Design nationale de France and offers twenty
exhibition. They have also included works pavilion, and a neon sign installed at VOX. black and white photograms. Attracted
from their private collections. Both feature Cree syllabic characters. by the beauty of different textures and the

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