As we drove along bustling Hastings Street to Simon Fraser University, I saw a sign that read “Free Altercations.” As I remarked on this, I realized that it actually read “Free Alterations.” Synchronistically, alterations were the theme of curator Kathy Slade’s talk at the SFU Gallery: Jo Cook and Perro Verlag Books by Artists: The Unreadable Sacred. The late Jo Cook and her partner Wesley Mulvin founded Perro Verlag Press in 2005, and until Jo’s death in 2021 they created and published books by artists. But don’t think “conventional” books; the books were printed by them on their letterpress in their home studio on Mayne Island, BC. They were beautiful and subversive. Jo Cook: “Perro Verlag is an idea that grew out of collaborative drawing sessions, comics exhibitions and barbecues at Lucky’s Comics in Vancouver. Perro Verlag’s roots go back to the energy of 1970s artist’s mimeo magazines in which the page became an alternative exhibition space for artists to work in.” So: the page is the space. I remember events like “Book and Beer” held annually at the Regional Assembly of Text in Vancouver, where Perro Verlag titles and other books were for sale. Some of the others, such as the tiny zines from the “pocket gallery,” were artist-made books that would simply be pulled out of various creators’ shirt pockets. The page is the space. Slade’s talk centered on Jo Cook’s time as the Artists’ Book Research Resident at Emily Carr University of Art and Design in 2016. Her project there saw her—well, actually you probably didn’t see her—slip quotes by women artists, handwritten on small bits of vellum, into books by men—in this particular sub-collection in the library, all the books were by men. Free alterations. You can find out more about Perro Verlag at perroverlag.com; click on the photo of Jo’s studio to enter.

—Peggy Thompson

‍