BRYCE WILNER
SCRUTINIZES
JOYCE WIELAND’S
TRUE PATRIOT LOVE
Free, RSVP required
SCRUTINIZES
JOYCE WIELAND’S
TRUE PATRIOT LOVE
Free, RSVP required
Thursday,
September 17, 2026
6:30pm
Doors
7pm
Event begins
Limited capacity
September 17, 2026
6:30pm
Doors
7pm
Event begins
Limited capacity
For some years I’ve been researching Joyce Wieland’s catalogue for True Patriot Love, her 1971 survey exhibition of painting, sculpture, and film work at the National Gallery of Canada. Wieland designed the catalogue herself, pinning snapshots, artwork details, text fragments, and organic matter throughout the pages of a Canadian government survey of arctic plant life. Each page was then photographed, reprinted, and bound into an official-looking volume that’s somewhere between an avant garde book work and a publicly-funded scientific field guide. While many of the book’s spreads are dense montages of visual research related to the works in the exhibition, they in some cases feature drafts of a script that Wieland would make into her first feature-length fiction film five years later, projecting Wieland’s thoughts on feminist-nationalist art onto images of the Canadian wilderness.
— Bryce Wilner
In hopes of understanding the abrupt turn to Canadian nationalism that Wieland took after a decade in downtown New York, Bryce Wilner delivers an extended talk that attempts to read the catalogue on its own terms.
Followed by a conversation with designer Laura Coombs.
Followed by a conversation with designer Laura Coombs.
Joyce Wieland, True Patriot Love (Ottowa: National Gallery of Canada, 1971), pp. 43-44.
Bryce Wilner is a graphic designer, writer, and educator based in New York.
Laura Coombs is a graphic designer and educator in New York.
Laura Coombs is a graphic designer and educator in New York.
Joyce Wieland (1930–1998) was a Canadian painter, filmmaker, and mixed media artist. She moved from Toronto to New York in 1962, where she established herself as an experimental filmmaker. Her work often addressed themes of Canadian nationalism, feminism, and ecology. In 1971, soon after her exhibition True Patriot Love at the National Gallery of Canada, she and her husband Michael Snow left New York and returned to Toronto.
Due to the age and character of the building, the space is not optimized for ADA accessibility and is located up a single flight of 20 stairs with handrails. If you have questions about access, please contact us in advance of the event, and we will make every effort to accommodate you.
