Collective Directions Exhibit

Collective Directions features a selection of works from the Halifax-based Manual Training Collective, at the Chester Art Centre in Chester, Nova Scotia. Of particular interest to book and paper artists are two tunnel books, created by film and video artist James MacSwain. MacSwain, who studied theatre arts, (U of A), describes his creations as follows: "Accordion books, or tunnel books or theatre books, are three dimensional objects... consisting of five accordion segments and a front 'proscenium' arch."


"The fifth segment is an image on acetate so that the accordion book becomes a light box that glows when a light shines on it... The inner segments contain the various characters and objects that give the accordion book its meaning."

MacSwain’s tunnel books have no covers, sleeves or slipcases, and are open and exposed for continual viewing.

Celebration, (created in 2018), features six Victorian characters framed by a "proscenium arch" of salmon-coloured marbled paper. We the viewer are exposed to a playful scene from a doll's house of static paper dolls that are frozen in movement as they dance in a foyer, to music from a pianist and a minstrel. The outdoors beckon through garden gates in the background which frame a mottled blue sky.

MacSwain's other work, Viewing Platform for the Planet Saturn, (created in 2013), is an exterior night setting featuring the luminous planet Saturn encircled by its famous ring, filling the star-filled night sky.

Two biblical figures in the mid-ground are as equally captivated by this celestial sight, as the crowd of 1930s fedora-topped men and women wrapped in turbans and furs in the foreground. Like the viewers in the tunnel book, our gaze is directed to the focal point of this creation - the legendary planet Saturn.

Both tunnel books are the same landscape format size: H 9" x W 10" x D 6". Paper, matt board, acetate and glue are listed as the materials used for both books, which make extensive use of photo prints. The effect is a more refined look than tunnel books crafted from hand-cut papers of various colours and textures.

Collective Directions is on display at the Chester Art Centre until July 16, 2023.

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Review by Charles Salmon