Watercircle
Sean Caulfield, Case Caulfied, and Sue Colberg. Linocut and letterpress on rag paper with silk book cover. 111 x 18.25 x ⅜ in. 2020.
Watercircle was produced through a collaborative process between Sean Caulfield (visual artist), Case Caulfield (writer), and Sue Colberg (book designer). To initiate the work, Sean Caulfield drew thematic inspiration from the North Saskatchewan River, which is a major feature in the landscape of Treaty 6 Territory, and is the historical and contemporary heart of Edmonton. In reflecting on the landscape shaped by the river, Sean Caulfield created a large-format linocut that explored themes of ecological change and regeneration of the landscape and the individuals who inhabit it.
Like much of Caulfield’s relief print work exploring landscape and the environment, Watercircle draws on a number of sources of inspiration, including German woodcuts from 1500 and 1600s, historic and contemporary scientific and industrial illustrations, and the prairie landscape of Alberta. In response to this, Case Caulfield created a text sourced in myth, contemporary imagery, and the circularity of being. Finally, Colberg created an accordion book format to showcase linocut landscape and poem, and then designed the cover and interior typography to bring unity and visual harmony to both.