I’ve been making books for many years. Early books were often one-of-a-kind using a variety of media. More recently I have produced small edition printed books and stitched felt books. Content is always the main concern for me, though structures interest me as well.
2001
Cups of Countenance, photocopied book of drawings
2004
Painted Books, photocopied drawings from my sketchbook and painted with gouache
Leap B 4 U Look, painted collage, coptic stitch
A Story, painted and collaged papers
2005
Mouffetard’s Week, a collaborative book. David Townsend and I wrote a story, each of us writing alternate lines, which we illustrated independently from each other and published as postcards, printed commercially and bound in a double sleeve structure made by me. Here is my version of the story.
2006
Cadence Difficult, ink and coloured pencil
Making a Book With David, photopolymer etching
Sometimes All It Takes is a Word, painted paper with stamped words.
Stages, felt book
2007
A Graphic Novel About Sand, relief print, one sheet
Back 4 7, felt book recounts a seven day visit with my family.
Getting Together, relief print, one sheet
2008
Send Word, altered book, collage. Twelve partial letters tell the story of a life.
Standoff, paste paper cut outs. Alternating positive and negative shapes of male and female characters.
Above,Below,Between,Beside, unique relief printed book that opens out into a cross shape.
Night Garden, unique stitched book of cut recycled prints
Encouraging and Discouraging Alphabet Verb Book, painted fabric
2009
Pictures of Me by Other People, photopolymer etchings
This book is made of drawings students and friends made of me over the years.
2010
Making Peace, felt book of things you can say to avoid conflict.
2011
The Equinox Arcana, two sets of cards designed like Tarot arcana but not using the traditional Tarot characters. This was a collaborative project between myself and David Townsend. Here are my images of the arcana we chose to illustrate.
PomePoem, felt book inspired by a Carol Shields quote
Surprise, unique pop-up book, embossed, printed and painted with gouache.
2012
Ms. Nomer #1, woodcuts. This was a collaborative book made with Andrea Itzeck and Brenda Malkinson.
It Begins Like This. . ., photopolymer etchings
This book is meant as a prompt to help parents tell their own fairy tales.
The Four Seasons of Canada, woodcuts
A tiny book expressing the old joke about Canadian seasons
Impropriety, woodcuts. The conversation in this book was overheard between two people in a dining establishment.
Button Rhetoric, felt book suggesting buttons as communication devices.
Ms. Nomer #2, woodcuts. This was the second book made collaboratively with Andrea Itzeck and Brenda Malkinson.
2013
Buried Memories, photopolymer etchings. A book lamenting the loss of memories that others have of you.
The first time a newborn person achieves something human beings are expected to do, speak, walk, sing, the people who witness the event often express awe, delight, and relief. These events are often memorialized in stories but at some point in everyone’s life, the witnesses die and these memories are buried in time. Sometimes the story remains, but it becomes a kind of myth. “Buried Memories” is a memorial to this fact of life: the death of all memory.
Reading the book is meant to mimic the act of trying to retrieve memory. The words are intentionally made difficult to read and the images are printed in the colour of dried blood as a metaphor for being alive, for surely memories are what make us feel we are alive.
So Sorry, photopolymer plates. A book of condolences presented in QR codes and embossed letters.
When someone we love dies, or someone loved by someone we know, we feel the need to speak, to comfort and acknowledge the loss. It is difficult to find the right words. Too often words seem inadequate. Knowing what to say, what words are accepted by our culture, or what might be of comfort to our friends or ourselves, is a matter of experience that many of us don’t have.
These days you can find lots of advice online as to what is appropriate. I found the text for this book on Facebook. The text has been edited to remove references to a specific event. There is nothing ironic in the repetition of words. They are inadequate because they are merely words, but they are all we have when arms can’t hug, when eyes can’t meet, when other gestures cannot be given or shared.
The 20 pages of text are presented in both QR codes and a font designed for dyslexics in order to emphasize the difficulty in expressing emotions and in accepting the words of others in the pain of grief. It also slows the process of reading so that the repetition of condolences gives us a chance to think about and perhaps feel the loss.
The Swan Brother and His Sister, collaboration, dry point and relief images with photopolymer relief text.
From 2012 to 2015, Kristin Meller, who lives in Paris, France, and I created a book that became two books. Initially, Kristin wrote the brother’s words (in blue) and I wrote the sister’s words (in yellow), the line work is Kristin’s dry point and the shapes are my linocuts. Eventually, she wrote more words and bound the book in a slightly different order than I did. Here is my version.
2014
At the Scene of, photopolymer etchings and ink drawings.
This little book was made in response to a call from The Alberta Craft Council for an exhibition called “Continuum,” to celebrate the cycle of learning that teaching brings. My book illustrates rooms in a house you might encounter in a strange dream. The colour plates are made with a technique I developed from a question a student asked me about whether one could make a random dot aquatint screen in PhotoShop. You can.
Later that Day, photopolymer etchings and paper cutouts.
This book was inspired by Rebecca Cowen’s Balsam Street book series, which I fell in love with and acquired. I used a random dot screen filter in PhotoShop to create the etching plates and added cutout paper silhouettes to the finished prints.
2015
Can’t Live Without You/Je rêve d’une vie avec toi, copper etchings, text in photopolymer.
I made this book in Paris and Edmonton. It is a series of etchings depicting clothing in shop windows or in museums. The text, in mixed up English and French, is what I imagine the clothes might say to the viewer.
Normandy Memorial, felt book.
I made Normandy Memorial in response to my experience in Normandy and seeing the beaches where the Allies landed to liberate France.
2016
Dispossessed, felt book
Dispossessed is my response to the refugee crisis.
Travelogues: Fifteen Superlative Days, digital print with added watercolour
This book comments on the triviality of the bucket list and the whirlwind tourist who sees strange places but does not experience the discomfort of culture shock. It has two texts bound in a dos-à-dos structure. The QR codes and figures were printed on a single piece of paper with an Epson printer. The books were then folded and cut into accordion structures before various scenes were painted in the borders with watercolour. The book can be read with a QR app on a device or the old fashioned way on the printed bookmark glued into the last page.
Your Exquisite Corpse, letterpress printed book
This letterpress printed book was made for an exhibition in Paris celebrating the Day of the Dead. It is an alphabet book with the men’s names in English and the women’s names in French. The text is in both languages and is a close but not exact translation. The pages, divided in thirds can be turned to make 24 x 24 x 24 different sentences.
S L Norquay 
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