With You and Others is an exhibition of rare artists’ books and other printed matter gifted to the Agnes Etherington Art Centre by artist and collector Ted Rettig. The exhibition treats the book as both object and image, reconsidering the encounter with the page, and contemplates reading as a performative and personal act. With You and Others looks at books as places of both solitude and sharing through works by John Baldessari, John Greer, Lise Melhorn-Boe, General Idea, Gerhard Richter, Clive Robertson, Ed Ruscha, Ian Wallace, Joyce Wieland and others.

An artist with a growing international practice, Kevin Rodgers served as Artistic Director of Modern Fuel Artist-Run Centre in Kingston from 2012 through 2015. In this role, he brought leading and emerging artists to the city through exhibitions and residencies, and cultivated regional art practices. He also shepherded the gallery’s relocation from its long-time quarters on Queen Street to a beautiful new space in the Tett Centre for Creativity and Learning.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a series of encounters and discussions about selected bookworks on display.

23 January: Kevin Rodgers (Kingston) will lead a conversation on artists’ books and their function as text, image and object.
27 February: Shalon Webber-Heffernan (Kingston) will discuss the sensuous nature of the act of reading
26 March: Michelle McGeean  (Toronto) will discuss Ed Ruscha and vernacular architecture.

Image: John Greer, Onion Skin Makes Your Eyes Water, 1979, Gift of Ted Rettig and Alice Wong- Rettig, 2012 (55-021.030)