February 28 - April 22
Opening: Friday, February 28, 5 - 7pm
From 1933 to 1936, the Carnegie Corporation of New York hired librarian Nora Bateson to establish a regional library system on Prince Edward Island. Over three years, Bateson traveled across PEI in a library car she designed, equipped with fold-out shelves and 300 books. She set up her mobile library at conventions, fairs, and meetings to build community support for public libraries. Before the 1933 demonstration, PEI had only three libraries. By 1935, thanks to Bateson's advocacy and the communities’ positive response, there were 22.
Nearly 90 years later, Doug Dumais retraced Bateson’s steps, visiting PEI’s 25 existing libraries to photograph these unique spaces, collect stories from librarians and patrons, and document their roles within their respective communities.
Circulations features Dumais’ photographs of these journeys, which explore the enduring importance of “third spaces,” highlight tensions between rural and urban communities, and demonstrate the value of community ownership over public space. Each image in the exhibition is meticulously digitally edited and layered with text, stickers, and labels from scans of book jackets borrowed through the PEI library system and interlibrary loans.
The pairings of images and book jackets are historical (Morell: It’s History, 1980), political (Nora Bateson’s “Rural Canada Needs Libraries,” 1944), poetic (Dionne Brand’s The Blue Clerk, 2018), thematic (W. G. Sebald’s Austerlitz, 2001), or personal (Esther Kinsky’s River, 2017). These combinations transform the photographs into layered visual narratives, encouraging viewers to see libraries as more than physical spaces but texts that can be read—uncovering the overlapping histories of these vital publicly funded institutions and the communities they serve.
This photography project was made possible thanks to Innovation PEI’s Arts Grants Funding.
About the Artist
Doug Dumais (he/him) is a camera-based artist based in Charlottetown, Epekwitk (PEI). A self-taught artist, Dumais holds a master’s degree in art history from Concordia University (2019). He has exhibited at The Guild, the City Hall Art Gallery in Ottawa, This Town Is Small, ARTCH Montréal, and Galerie La Castiglione. His work has been included in private and public collections, including the City of Ottawa Art Collection and the PEI Art Bank.
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