Bodies of Art, Bodies of Labour by Kate Beaton, award-winning author of Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands and Hark! A Vagrant, explores connections between class, literature, and art from Cape Breton Island. In this thought-provoking book, Beaton addresses the often overlooked impact of class on the Canadian arts scene. The book highlights the reality that people from poor or working-class backgrounds face significant barriers to becoming artists, limiting their ability to share their stories and contribute to the collective culture. This lack of representation in art, music, and literature can empower or stereotype, edify or diminish, or worse, erase entire communities. Beaton emphasizes that if working-class and poor people do not write themselves into stories, others will, often with damaging results. Drawing on examples from work published about Cape Breton, Beaton sheds light on the portrayal of working-class lives. She juxtaposes this with her personal experiences, her family's stories, and the inspiring work of other Cape Bretoners. Despite economic hardships, her community has long valued and created art: art for no money, for each other, for themselves, for memory, for joy. Bodies of Art, Bodies of Labour thoughtfully examines personal and working class legacies, celebrating the authenticity and power of truly seeing ourselves and each other in the art that we create. Introduction by Julie Rak.

Kate Beaton, award-winning author of the graphic novel Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands, explores connections between class, literature, and art.

About the Author
Kate Beaton is a cartoonist and graphic novelist from Nova Scotia. While studying history at Mount Allison University in New Brunswick, Beaton began writing comics for the student newspaper. Her comics, which combined literature, history, and off-beat humour, became immensely popular online, leading to the publication of two acclaimed comic volumes: Hark! A Vagrant and Step Aside, Pops!, as well as children's picture books The Princess and the Pony and King Baby. Beaton's first graphic memoir, Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands, received wide acclaim. In addition to being the first graphic narrative to win Canada Reads, Ducks received the Eisner Award for Best Graphic Memoir and praise from Quill and Quire, Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, and President Barack Obama. Beaton currently resides in Nova Scotia / Mi'kma'ki, the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi'kmaq People, with her husband and two children.


Book Information
ISBN 9781772128000
Author Kate Beaton
Format Paperback
Page Count 88
Imprint University of Alberta Press
Publisher University of Alberta Press
Weight(grams) 120g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 133mm * 6mm