Back Issues: A Conversation About Art Writing and Publishing

Susan Gibb
Maxine Proctor
Zool Suleman
Jacquelyn Zong-Li Ross

Back Issues: A Conversation About Art Writing and Publishing will explore the histories and contemporary work of Canadian art publications. Four publications will each be highlighting a noteworthy back issue, showcasing how their publication has grown, shifted, or taken risks. Back Issues aims to initiate a conversation about the value of art writing and publishing, not simply as timely reverberations but as materials that influence art history and advocate for who and what is remembered. The panel will feature Jacquelyn Zong-Li Ross, Art Editor of The Capilano Review; Zool Suleman, Editor and Co-founder of Rungh; Maxine Proctor, Editor of BlackFlash, and Susan Gibb, Executive Director of Western Front representing the former Front Magazine.

Masks are mandatory for in-person attendance.

For those who can’t attend in person, a livestream of the talk will be available here.

Curated by Maxine Proctor.

About the Speakers
Susan Gibb is the Executive Director of Western Front. Previously, she was curator at If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want To Be Part of Your Revolution in Amsterdam, The Netherlands where she worked in close collaboration with artists to develop and produce new work commissions across performance, moving image, and publishing, and to present these works in partnership with arts organizations internationally.

Maxine Proctor is a writer, curator, and editor dedicated to contemporary art. She is the Managing Editor of BlackFlash magazine and was the director/co-founder of the Toronto Art Book Fair (2016-18). Proctor holds a MA in Art History and Curatorial Studies from York University and a BA in Art History and Studio Art from the University of Saskatchewan. Her research interests include artists’ publishing, animals in the Anthropocene, and the Canadian prairies. Although seemingly disparate, Proctor is interested in how capitalism informs our capacity for compassion and communication.

Zool Suleman is an advocate, writer, and cultural collaborator. He is the Editor of Rungh, a creative platform for Indigenous, Black, and racialized artist conversations. His curatorial projects include Longing and Belonging: 1990s South Asian Film and Video at the DOXA Documentary Film Festival (2019), and Rungh Redux, an “archive activation” project which was awarded the 2022 “Award of Merit – Innovative Practice” by the BC Museum Association.

Jacquelyn Zong-Li Ross is a writer based in Vancouver, the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples. Her fiction, poetry, essays, and art criticism have appeared in BOMB, Mousse, Fence, C Magazine, Kijiji, and elsewhere, and her chapbooks include Mayonnaise (2016) and Drawings on Yellow Paper (with Katie Lyle) (2016). She publishes experimental art writing under the small press Blank Cheque, and is currently Art Editor of The Capilano Review. She holds a BFA in Studio Art from Simon Fraser University (2012) and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Guelph (2018). She is working on her first book.

Accessibility
The Grand Luxe Hall is located on the second floor, which is accessed by a flight of 26 stairs. The second floor is not currently accessible to wheelchair users. Further details about accessibility at Western Front can be found here.

Acknowledgements
Presented as part of Art Book Month.