The Response

While the Saint John Arts Centre had other artists exhibiting at the same time, close to two thousand viewers came specifically to see Beyond Words.

Even more noticeable for the Gallery staff was the number of return visits to this particular exhibit. People wanted to take their time with each piece, hence they might ‘read’ a book a week, staggering their visits over a period of time to make the most of each work. The books are so personal, and each one has so much to say, that viewers commented they were unable to absorb everything in just one visit.

As with more traditional books, these are dense in their content.

Kathryn McCarroll likened the space to a reading room, a step back to the time when the Arts Centre was, in reality, a library and known to Saint Johners as The Carnegie Building. Yet the interactive nature of many of the works invited the visitors to do more than ‘read’. Gallery staff encouraged them to sit at the chair and table which were part of Kathy Hooper’s installation; rotate John Murphy’s prayer wheels; and feel the surfaces of Darren Byers’ carving.

Fred Harrison’s book allowed viewers to walk around it, while Sue Hooper’s installation invited them to walk inside. Children played with the wooden letters scattered at the base of A Punctured Garden of Verse.