Late Vancouver artist Rodney Graham’s work celebrated in Belgium show

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The Herbert Foundation, a contemporary art museum in Ghent, Belgium, has just opened a retrospective of the works of late Vancouver conceptual artist Rodney Graham.

Sumptuous Allegories of Nothingness  is the first museum show of Graham’s work in Europe since Graham passed away in 2022. On now, the show runs until July 27, 2025.

In addition to the exhibition, a series of events will be held, including the first European performance of Graham’s 10 Studies Composed on the System of Parsifal (1996).

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Graham was part of the Vancouver School group of conceptual artists that includes Jeff Wall, Ian Wallace, Stan Douglas, Vikky Alexander, Roy Arden and Ken Lum.

If you do find yourself across the pond, you can also add a Wall show to your itinerary as Jeff Wall: Life in Pictures is on at the White Cube (Bermondsey) gallery in London from Nov. 22 to Jan. 27, 2025.

Postmedia reached out to Herbert Foundation’s director Laura Hanssens and asked a few questions about the Graham show.

Question: How do you describe this show to people?

Answer:The exhibition Sumptuous Allegories of Nothingness in Herbert Foundation in Ghent, Belgium, is dedicated to the so-called “book adaptations” of the late Canadian artist Rodney Graham, Graham’s early artworks from dominantly the 1980s and 1990s that — in or beyond straightforward book guises — cross over into the world of literature. A double presentation is formed together with Avis au lecteur [Message to the reader], which presents an equally bibliophile aspect of a Belgian contemporary, Jan Vercruysse.

Quintessentially non-conformist, the works in this double exhibition push the conventional confines of “artwork” and “book,” “art” and “literature.” Acknowledging the singular ways in which both artists have approached books, the two exhibitions present as individual solo’s … which doesn’t mean, however, that they can’t be read together. Not in the least because one can find traces of exchange throughout the individual shows. On view are, for example, furniture designs by Vercruysse for the display of Graham’s book-based artworks as well as a piece that Graham created especially for Vercruysse.

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Q: What was Graham’s literary art practice? 

A: Graham begins to experiment with seemingly minimal but actually extreme adaptations of renowned books during the 1980s. What begins as the artist’s soft spot for extending books through literary loops eventually develops into a parasitic authorship.

Established tomes are made the artist’s own by claiming the original text, inserting paragraphs, pages or entire chapters in a chameleonic style that will paradoxically enough become Graham’s signature. As a lover of books, he will not just be able to resist “writing” books (pretending to equal, or stronger to be Edgar Allen Poe, Sigmund Freud or Herman Melville), but he will “design” books as well, embracing the creativity of un-originality by remodeling the designs of his ‘republications’ after again other existing (types of) books.

Not only did Graham start to exhibit such “books” from the mid 1980s onwards in a European artistic context, his literary interest as a contemporary artist found a significant stimulus in 1986, when encountering Yves Gevaert, an unconventional Brussels-based publisher who exclusively nurtured and produced printed matter by conceptual artists.

Gevaert “published” works by Graham that transcend the book object. To meet the demands of exhibitions, the artist started creating reading devices (which he calls “machines”) and book sculptures (such as Donald Judd-like objects, intentionally “abused” either as book shelves or book cases) that transform his book interventions into unconventional reading experiences.

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Q: What is in the show?

A: Sumptuous Allegories of Nothingness departs from a remarkably representative ensemble of Grahams literary or bibliophile artworks in the collection of the Ghent-based collectors Anton and Annick Herbert, enriched by significant national and international loans. In the presentation, we follow the structuring principle of Grahams “adaptations,” namely the various “ways of reading” that Graham develops for printed works based on the same literary anecdote or concept.

Next to book pieces in display cases, there are also publications on the wall, book sculptures on pedestals and reading devices in the spaces. The sculptural impulse can be seen as the artist’s creative compromise for the challenge of exhibition spaces not necessarily being ideal environments for both “art” of rather intimate dimensions and ‘art’ that one should be able to “read.”

Q: Why did you want to mount this show?

A: Herbert Foundation is a foundation dedicated to contemporary art in Ghent, established by Annick and Anton Herbert. Its collection and archives focus on the artistic developments of the periods surrounding 1968 and 1989. For the Herberts, printed matter has always been central to their engagement with art.

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This focus is reflected in the Foundation’s structure, where the “archives” (or documents) are considered an equally important pillar of the organization as the “collection” (of pieces). This exhibition — the first time the Foundation exhibits their collection of Rodney Graham — not just reaffirms this position, here a proper distinction (and hierarchy) becomes impossible. Through the Foundation, the Herberts aim to share knowledge about the artistic practices they have closely followed, with particular attention to younger generations.

This exhibition, the result of a close collaboration with the art historian Nikolaas Verstraeten, represents a significant first step in realizing the mission envisioned by the Herberts.

Q: What do you think Graham’s legacy is and will be going forward? 

A: Graham is best known today for his photography, which has earned him a central position in a grouping of (conceptual) photographers that has come to be called the “Vancouver School.” This legacy may certainly be enriched by the literary artworks with which the artist launches his trajectory in the arts.

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Moreover, the work in the exhibition in Ghent also show his involvement in the European contemporary art world of the late 20th century. Not only does it feature Graham’s significant contributions to leading exhibitions such as Skulptur Projekte Münster (1987) or Dokumenta IX (1992) (where Graham showed in the Grimm Museum!), it also makes the exceptional and underexplored relationship between a visual artist and a Belgian publisher visible.

Continuing the intimate relationship that Anton and Annick Herbert always maintained with the artists they followed, Herbert Foundation makes it a point to enrich the legacy of the artist by putting the artists at the center, which in practice means valuing the artist’s perspective on the presentation of their work as much as possible.

Although Graham was quite well represented in Belgium or surrounding countries in the late 20th century, we notice that his practice is currently lesser known here, versus, for example, an artist like Jan Vercruysse whose legacy at the moment remains mostly locally anchored. By insisting on long-term exhibitions (the expo runs until July 2025), we wonder whether that contrasting effect can once again enthuse new generations and possibly attract international audiences about these currently under-recognized aspects of the oeuvres of both Graham and Vercruysse.

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