The Left Atrium

Table of Contents The Left Atrium

History’s labour travelled 60 miles on horseback bearing her ovarian cyst from her log farm- Reading birth and death: a history of obstetric thinking house to McDowell’s knife and, per- Jo Murphy-Lawless haps unsurprisingly, lived to age 78. Indiana University Press, Bloomington and Indianapolis; 1999 James Marion Sims (1813–1883) in- 352 pp. US$39.95 (cloth) ISBN 0-253-33475-6 vented the position by which he is re- US$19.95 (paper) ISBN 0-253-21258-8 membered after examining a woman who had been thrown from a horse. He n Reading Birth and Death Jo Mur- power, influence and opinions of their developed his speculum from a bent I phy-Lawless places much of the bur- selected clientele. spoon and popularized his operation for den of obstetric misadventure on the Among the man-midwives was that vesicovaginal fistula in Europe while “man-midwife,” a creation of 17th- and “great horse godmother of a he-mid- draft-dodging the American Civil War. 18th-century Europe hated equally by wife” William Smellie (1697–1763) of Murphy-Lawless’ book has the po- proud barber-surgeons and jealous, Pall Mall, exponent of the obstetrical tential to help those involved with sometimes gin-besotted, but “grave and forceps. This device had been invented childbirth to understand the roots of modest … Midwives.”1 The latter were to pull out the fetal head, and ideally certain obstetric practices, ideologies informed with rather startling inertia by the rest along with it, probably by Peter and paralytic paradigms, in part by re- Thomas Raynalde’s The Byrth of Man- “The Elder” Chamberlen (1560–1631), vealing their flaws. For those who enjoy kynde (c. 1540), translated from Eu- a Parisian Huguenot refugee.2 Cham- the death rattle of sacred cows, there charius Röslin’s Rosengarten (c. 1513). berlen’s family concealed their secret may be particular pleasure in the au- That body of knowledge was the only for 125 years for reasons that were thor’s interpretations. She does a par- update after 14 centuries of a Roman clearly financial. They were prominent ticularly creditable job of uncovering obstetrical compendium by the memo- enough to be called to deliver Queen major cracks in the foundation of “high rably named Soranus of Ephesus (AD Anne in 1692. A bereft descendant sold risk” thinking, that metastatic mythol- 78–117). That first English obstetric the idea in 1693 — or rather half of it, ogy that entraps and corrupts contem- resource lasted until the 13th edition by revealing only one of the two blades porary obstetric thought.3 As well, was published in 1654, illustrating that — to the son of Hendrik van Roon- linked effectively to false ideologies of obstetric knowledge was at best static. huyze, the master of cesarean section. prediction and its implied power, she “Obstetric thinking” began in a pe- Smellie purloined the mounts a worthy attack on riod of human existence when every concept, adding finesse by the Dublin-espoused ap- woman able to conceive was likely to do clothing his blades in proach of “active manage- so at least once in her lifetime unless leather to avoid terroriz- ment of labour,” which will she remained celibate. When such ing his patients with the be enjoyed by everyone ex- events happened only once, it was often noise of interlocking steel. cept Kieran O’Driscoll and because death had occurred during or He taught students to use his acolytes. soon after the first pregnancy. In this them at three guineas per Historical analysis can “cycle of perpetual parturition ... doc- lesson, using a leather “in- liberate us from the error

tors were rarely in attendance at births, fant” jammed into the Fred Sebastian of outworn creeds. Care- and when they were, concentrated on pelvis of a female skeleton. fully wrought, it can teach the rich, for obvious reasons.”2 The Gynecology was largely an Ameri- that humans raise structures that confine man-midwife served only a tiny minor- can construct, created in part to correct and define their own actions, and then ity, based for the most part on who the ravages of obstetric — and mid- build systems of thinking and language could afford their services. By the end wifery — practices. Where there were to deny those structures. But a central of the 17th century it was customary to developments unrelated to pregnancy, weakness of this otherwise useful effort call in a man-midwife for the most dif- the circumstances typically were reis its presumptions. Historical systems ficult cases, many of which were in ex- markable, but only as seen from our are unpredictable and complex. Long tremis or irretrievable from the River era. The first oophorectomy was car- chains of causation may separate final ef- Styx. To the extent that men-midwives ried out in 1809 in Kentucky by Edin- fects from their causes.4 Those who influenced obstetric thinking, it was not burgh-trained Ephraim McDowell would understand must strive for under- so much due to their success with large (1771–1830). His unanesthetized pa- standing more than judgement. Did his-

A. M. Todkill numbers of births as to the wealth, tient was Jane Todd Crawford, 47, who tory follow its course because of others’

CMAJ • DEC. 14, 1999; 161 (12) 1563

actions, or because of the environments fused with understanding and wisdom. her own culture and values. The other that led to those actions? Were the ac- One of the primary perinatal killers was was captured by Marcus Aurelius, who tions of the past wrong because we are “childbed fever.” Although doctors and suggested that the opinion of future right or, more simply, are they incon- midwives had an equal share of igno- generations will be worth no more than gruous with present values and beliefs? rance as to its cause, death from puer- that of our own. To heir is human. If this work were fully balanced to peral fever far more commonly followed include midwifery as a component of examination by midwives than by man- References the origins of “obstetric thinking,” it midwives, simply because the former might be obliged to report that 17th- had a much larger clientele. Dr. William 1. Rueff J. The expert midwife, or an excellent and most necessary treatise of the generation and birth of century midwives conducted brutal Harvey called for cleanliness to prevent man. London: 1637. Translated from De conceptu searches for evidence of adultery, to fever, and midwife Jane Sharp for a et generatione hominis of 1554. Rueff was a surgeon who argued that midwifery was the “pecu- discover the “devil’s marks” on women herbal cleaning bath at the onset of liar business of women ... only sacrificed to men accused of witchcraft and sorcery, and labour, but it took painfully plodding by default of learning.” 2. Fraser A. The weaker vessel: woman’s lot in seven- to determine the veracity of those who recognition that Holmes (1843), and teenth century England. London: Methuen; 1985. sought to escape punishment on the Semmelweis (1847) had been correct to 3. Hall PF. Rethinking risk. Can Fam Physician 1994;40:1239-44. grounds that they were pregnant. arrest the death of countless parturients 4. Diamond J. Guns, germs and steel: the fates of hu- It would also reveal that, as was first from puerperal sepsis. man societies. New York: W.W. Norton; 1999. 5. Sharp J. The midwives book, or the whole art of pointed out in 1671, men enjoyed a su- This work is worth the attention of midwifery discovered. London: 1671. perior education to women and, unlike anyone involved with childbirth. If you the latter, could gain knowledge of med- are one of those, you might do well to Philip F. Hall, MD, BScMed icine and anatomy as well as of Latin at a write two things on your bookmark. Department of Obstetrics and university.5 Man-midwives had the ad- One is a reminder that the conclusions Gynaecology vantage of knowledge, not to be con- of any investigator are shaded by his or University of Manitoba, Winnipeg

Expiation and celebration never met. The others have the kind of profile that tells me we could talk. Each Patients and doctors: one has an interesting story to tell. life-changing stories from primary care Each one has sought sense in an appar- Edited by Jeffrey Borkan, Shmuel Reis, Jack H. Medalie ently senseless world, and I commend and Dov Steinmetz them for their highly readable, personal University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, WI; 1999 testimonies. 228 pp. US$24.95 (cloth) ISBN 0-299-16340-7 I believe that doctors write for two reasons, expiation or celebration. Expia- ’ve been interested in the value of baffled boatloads of professors. “I don’t tion: seeking to exorcise a personal de- I anecdotal evidence for a long time. It know how you do it,” one bewildered mon, searching for forgiveness of a pro- all began years ago when my wife and I colleague had said after another (ac- fessional error whether real or perceived. went out to dinner to celebrate a wed- cording to the raconteur), “but you’re Celebration: recording with admiration ding anniversary. We chose our favour- absolutely right every time.” From my the many facets of the human spirit it is ite restaurant on the northwest out- point of view, the interesting thing was our privilege to observe and the remark- skirts of Glasgow. The weather was that he didn’t know how he did it ei- able heights to which it soars. foul on this particular February 3, and ther. This was a man whose thought When I was in practice in Glasgow we were ushered to a table near a roar- patterns were atypical and whose ap- many years ago I looked after two el- ing fire. Only one other table was occu- proach to problem-solving was individ- derly sisters who lived together and pied, by four people who looked to us ual, indirect and intuitive. Our paths seemed to get a lot of respiratory infec- like an engaged couple and a set of par- never crossed again  to my regret; I tions. They came to my office most of ents. We couldn’t quite match them up. would have liked to talk with him. the time, and it was unusual for them to It didn’t really matter, as the father of Patients and Doctors: Life-Changing request a house call. They did on one whomever, a distinguished-looking Stories from Primary Care is an anthol- occasion and I was surprised to see that middle-aged gentleman, dominated the ogy of anecdotes contributed by no less the reason given was “both very sick.” table and spoke in a loud voice impossi- than 47 authors. One or two of the au- I’ve often said that you learn more ble to ignore. We concluded he was a thors are respected colleagues, several about people in one house call than in a medical man, as he recounted story af- are friends and acquaintances, some lifetime of office visits. This was one of ter story with but a single theme: how have names so familiar to me it seems I the experiences that shaped that opin-

Barbara Sibbald he had solved clinical conundrums that know their owners although we have ion. The sisters lived in a small but ab-

1564 JAMC • 14 DÉC. 1999; 161 (12) The Left Atrium

solutely spotless home in a quiet cul- had little access to diagnostic facilities troduction to patient-centred medicine de-sac. I was ushered into the parlour in the National Health Service of the  and Onan went to the vet for a and left for a few minutes while the day, and the concept of atypical pneu- micro-dose of tetracycline or whatever ladies got themselves ready for exami- monia as a specific syndrome hadn’t sick budgies get. nation. In a cage by the fireplace was quite reached communal consciousness, I suppose that’s by the way of both Onan the budgerigar. Aloof and in- certainly not mine. expiation and celebration. Education as scrutable, he ignored my efforts at con- The laboratory report came back well, as I found out later why the versation. There were pictures on the just before I had arranged a return visit, budgie was called Onan. My patients, piano of two men in World War I uni- and I was just tickled pink to find their observant Presbyterians who knew their forms. I found out later that both had psittacosis antibody titres sky high! Bible, pointed out to me that Onan was been killed at the Dardanelles, one the They had both improved on the tetra- the second son of Judah and Bathshua, husband and the other the fiancé of my cycline I had prescribed but seemed less ordered to impregnate Tamar, his respective patients. than impressed with my news that their brother’s widow. Whenever I feel that The sisters had remarkably similar budgerigar was making them sick and my ego is getting a bit too inflated, I re- problems. Each gave a history of a few would have to go. That’s when I was mind myself of the beloved budgie days of malaise, fever, cough and in- informed that his name was Onan. One who, like the Onan of Genesis 38:9, creasing chest discomfort. Examination of the sisters remarked enigmatically, “spilled his seed upon the ground”! of both found nothing but low-grade “He’s a very messy eater, doctor.” I had Read Patients and Doctors. It is full of fever and a few crackles over the right expected praise and even admiration for life-affirming stories that will challenge middle lobe in the mid-axillary line. an astute piece of diagnosis, but, to my you to place your professionalism within How very odd! Inspiration struck me chagrin, what was eventually forthcom- the context of your patients’ lives. and I went to some trouble to get blood ing was a reluctant statement to the ef- samples from both ladies tested for psit- fect that they would change doctors James McSherry, MB ChB tacosis antibodies. This would have rather than get rid of Onan. We even- Professor of Family Medicine been around 1969; general practitioners tually reached a compromise  my in- University of Western Ontario, London

Not just a pretty face Breast reduction has become common- place among upper-middle-class Brazil- Making the body beautiful: a cultural history ian families to distinguish their daugh- of aesthetic surgery ters from the lower classes. “Brazilian Sander L. Gilman breast reductions” are often given to Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ; 1999 young women as “sweet-sixteen” birth- 396 pp. US$29.95 ISBN 0-691-02672-6 day presents, enabling them to “pass” as members of a more erotic cohort and read Sander L. Gilman’s Making the liberating.” Central to his thesis is the find appropriate mates. By contrast, Ar- I Body Beautiful for the first time on a concept of “passing.” Aesthetic surgery gentinian women, who have the highest five-hour flight from Toronto to Van- can allow a person to “pass” in a desired rates of silicone implantation in the couver to attend the annual meeting of social group. It changes not only the world, are much more likely to pursue the Canadian Society of Aesthetic Plas- present but also the future,“overrides breast augmentation, fulfilling the tic Surgery. It is a wonderful book, and the genetic code,” and has been used on “Spanish fantasy” of the large-breasted I couldn’t wait to read it again. You every conceivable part of the body. woman as the icon of the erotic. By need to read it twice to put everything “Passing” depends on many factors, comparison, standards of breast beauty in perspective. Drawing on expertise in including historical context, age and in Europe shifted between the 19th and Germanic studies, comparative litera- sex, and racial or ethnic issues. In ear- 20th centuries. Smaller breasts became ture and psychiatry, Gilman provides a lier times, fat was perceived in some associated with a new erotic image, en- comprehensive cultural history of aes- cultures as a positive sign of prosperity. abling a woman to “pass” into the age thetic surgery. He is as comfortable dis- By contrast, by the end of the 19th cen- of the “New Woman.” cussing Nietzsche, Yeats and Darwin as tury it was usually perceived negatively, Gilman’s many references to racial he is the fathers of plastic surgery or the as a sign of poor health. Today the difference may seem somewhat provo- nasal anatomy of Bill Clinton. young and the old want to “pass” as cative. Taken in context, however, they Gilman opens the book with the slim and fit, and older people want to serve to emphasize the cultural deter- statement that “in a world in which we “pass” as younger. minants of aesthetic norms. Gilman re- are judged by how we appear, the belief “Passing” is often culture dependent. lates that Israel has become the aes-

A. M. Todkill that we can change our appearance is Breast size is cited as a classic example. thetic surgery capital of the Middle

CMAJ • DEC. 14, 1999; 161 (12) 1565 De l’oreille gauche

East, where the most common proce- quack beauty doctors of the 1880s to its fresh sternum to rebuild the col- dure among both men and women is the modern, board-certified aesthetic lapsed syphilitic nose of a 26-year-old rhinoplasty. He describes a Jewish girl surgeon of today. The designation of man. There are vivid reports of paraffin who undergoes the procedure to “pass” this surgical specialty also changed, being injected into breasts, faces and as more Gentile. In young men, aes- from “cosmetic” to “esthetic” to “aes- other anatomical areas, resulting in thetic surgery is usually performed be- thetic,” as the specialty seemed to dreadful complications. There is a fore compulsory mili- emerge with a classical lin- memorable story of a German lad who, tary service so that they eage. Aesthetic surgeons after winning a lottery, consulted an can look like their overcame their low status to aesthetic surgeon with the hope of sur- peers. In some in- attain respectability and gically creating artificial duelling scars stances, the urgency of even adulation. Contribu- so that he could pass as a man of hon- disguising racial origins tions from reconstructive our. The surgeon refused. Subsequent- diminished with the surgery are recognized, par- ly, the man sought treatment from a dawning of ethnic pride ticularly procedures to re- barber, who obliged with a straight ra- and with greater racial store the collapsed syphilitic zor, causing severe damage to the sali- tolerance. More subtle nose and the soldier’s face vary glands. changes in ethnicity ravaged by war. Surprising This is a well-informed and engross- were in order. One can contributions are described ing study of a hot contemporary sub- look different, but not from well-known figures ject. It will be valuable to plastic sur- Fred Sebastian too different. It may be not generally considered to geons and to other physicians who are desirable for Japanese people to appear be “aesthetic surgeons.” These include interested in a comprehensive history Japanese, but not too Japanese. Thus, 32 Ambroise Paré, Theodor Billroth and of the cultural and aesthetic side of different operations have been devel- orthopedic surgeon Jacques Joseph. plastic surgery. oped in Japan to create a westernized There are many graphic descriptions double eyelid-fold. of early surgical procedures. In 1892 Walter Peters, PhD, MD Throughout the book the evolution Robert Weir brought a live duck into Professor of Surgery of aesthetic surgery is traced from the the operating theatre, killed it, and used University of Toronto

Food for the soul of mistakes. Mistakes in medicine can destroy lives, but in jazz improvisation Doctors afield they become a platform for new ideas Edited by Mary G. McCrea Curnen, Howard Spiro and redemption. Eli’s music has the and Deborah St. James power to transport him into a state that Yale University, New Haven, CT; 1999 is not, “strictly speaking, a conscious 264 pp. US$27.50 (cloth) ISBN 0-300-08020-4 process.” We learn that the joy and re- lease of his music enables him to deal in ourishment and renewal are the period long after his graduation. Stein his professional life with issues such as Nthemes of Doctors Afield. The sto- failed obstetrics in her final year at Johns child abuse and family violence. ries in this book are told by an eclectic Hopkins and never graduated. Some In “A Prescription for Poetry,” in- group of physicians who have excelled in people should never go into medicine, ternist Rafael Campo provides a win- the visual arts, music, literature, astro- but this is not the book’s message. Thus dow on specific medical problems ver- nautics, the spiritual life, government, I would have much preferred that those sus much larger, more complex societal academia, collecting, and fun and games. spots be given to a couple of star physi- problems. While trying to concentrate The least among the stories are merely cian–writers who could reflect on medi- on radiographs of a battered woman’s informative and the best are masterfully cine and creativity. That would have facial fractures he finds instead that he written with powerful messages. Almost maintained the central theme and pro- hears the soft, impatient tapping of her all are autobiographical, which gives vided a much better counterpoint. So, husband’s foot outside in the emer- them relevance and helps the reader see the field in Doctors Afield is a little spotty, gency room. “Poetry is there when the the interplay between medicine and the but there are some very fertile patches. last of our gizmos and gadgets fail us; ... contributor’s parallel endeavour. Eli Newberger is a pediatrician who it helps us gauge that which cannot be There are two biographical sketches does weekly sessions on the tuba with assayed in the blood, to see what cannot that don’t fit the model: those of Carlo the New Black Eagle Jazz Band. He be imagined.” Levi and Gertrude Stein. Levi practised tells us about creative inspiration, the In “The Singing Endocrinologist,”

National Archives of Canada / PA-120960 medicine, under duress, for only a short magic of improvisation and its prospect Alice Levine tells us that early in her

1566 JAMC • 14 DÉC. 1999; 161 (12) The Left Atrium

training she observed the energy and ef- Lifeworks ficiency her two careers provided: “diver- sions made studies easier, not more diffi- cult.” Like Anton Chekhov, who saw Marrying the coats medicine as his lawful wife and literature as his mistress, Levine likens a career in Until Jan. 16, 2000, the Confederation Centre Art Gallery and Museum in Char- music to climbing in sand, whereas medi- lottetown showcases traditional and modern designs and techniques in rug hook- cine is always there, reliable. Both careers ing, sometimes called North America’s “one indigenous folk art.” The Marrying of are about communicating, and she suc- the Coats features the work of rug hookers from cessfully fuses them into a rewarding life. across Prince Edward Island, including 80-year- The section on spirituality is timely, old Anna MacLeod, who in her 60 years of moving and courageous. In the 19th rug hooking has carried on the tradition of century, Oliver Wendell Holmes ar- “the marrying of the coats,” a process in gued strongly for a rational base for which torn-up coats are dyed to provide medicine that excluded religion. Today a consistent background colour for large in Boston, Ray Hammond and Gloria rugs. Joe Smith and the Spectacular Brennan White-Hammond, with a mission to Rug features arguably one of the most im- Alberta Som “serve others as we are led by the Holy pressive rugs ever created on the Island. In Spirit,” have transcended barriers of Bricàbra Nancy Edell of Nova Scotia com- class, gender and race to produce a ers bines rug hooking with other media, including modern-day miracle. Among other painting and animation. For more information things, their coalition adopts gangs. Anna MacLeod, Colour Wheel, on these and other exhibits, visit the gallery’s Guess what has happened to the murder 1997. Hooked rug; wool. Each Web site (www.confederationcentre.com rate in Boston? I am sure that Holmes edge measures 40.6 cm /exhibs.html). would be impressed. Alan Mermann, in “Looking for the Red Line,” and John Young, in “Priest in the Prison,” are equally convincing on the need to appropriately access the soul Mentor times two to sustain the doctor and heal the patient. There are lessons to be learned from In Halifax, The Art Gallery of Nova careers in the visual arts. Andrea Baldeck, Scotia remembers two artists who ex- an anesthesiologist, was so fulfilled by erted a presence in the visual arts in the her photography career that medicine province both through their work and lost out. Sir Roy Calne, a pioneer trans- through their influence on younger plant surgeon, used his surgeon’s eye for artists. Born in Halifax’ north end, John anatomy as a stepping stone into the Cook (1918–1984) was a prolific and un- world of art and then got lessons from sentimental painter of Nova Scotia’s one of his patients, a noted Scottish rural and urban landscapes and an ener- GNH artist. Wayne Southwick discovered the getic teacher who cared little for the es- John Cook, The Little Boats of Indian connection between orthopedics and tablished institutions of art. Born in Harbour, 1967. Oil on masonite, 50.5 sculpture and used his second career as a New Brunswick, Donald Cameron x 76.0 cm successful bridge into his retirement. Mackay (1906–1979) worked as war “Getting Famous,” by Michael La- artist, illustrator, printmaker and painter Combe, an internist from rural Maine, is over a career than spanned 50 years. the piece that I liked best. His journey as Principal of the Nova Scotia College of a physician–writer has not been smooth Art from 1945 until 1971, he was by his and effortless. He reveals this in a won- own admission of an “ultra conservative” derfully literate manner and packs in a stamp. The parallel and yet disparate ca- whole lot of good advice along the way. reers of Cook and Mackay largely de- Read Doctors Afield. You will be fined the horizon for serious artists in nourished and renewed. Nova Scotia until the 1970s. John Cook:

Artist & Teacher and Donald Cameron GNH Ian A. Cameron Mackay: Artist & Teacher continue at the Donald Cameron Mackay, Landscape, Department of Family Medicine gallery (www.agns.ednet.ns.ca) until Jan. Herring Cove, c. 1950. Oil on canvas, Dalhousie University, Halifax 16, 2000. 61.1 x 76.1 cm

CMAJ • DEC. 14, 1999; 161 (12) 1567 De l’oreille gauche

The Canadian Audubon Models of extravagance

Audubon's Wilderness Palette: The Birds of The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts Canada is the first major Canadian exhibition marvels at Triumphs of the Baroque: Ar- of the work of artist and naturalist John chitecture in Europe, 1600–1750 until James Audubon (1785–1851). At Frederic- April 9, 2000 (www.mmfa.ca). Thirty ton’s Beaverbrook Art Gallery (www.beaver- large-scale original period models, 20 brookartgallery.org) until Jan. 15, 2000, the paintings and 75 drawings and prints exhibition comprises 100 hand-coloured, life- convey the grandeur of architectural sized plates from the famed four-volume projects undertaken during turbulent “double elephant” folio edition of Birds of times in which Catholic Europe was America (1827–1839), a set of 435 prints shaken by the Reformation, the political based on Audubon’s watercolours and pre- order was challenged by the rise of the pared over 12 painstaking years by the Eng- middle class and states were brought to lish engraver Robert Havell, Jr. Only 100 the brink of ruin by war. Arising in complete sets are still in existence; this one, Italy, the baroque style was adopted from the Toronto Reference Library’s col- throughout Europe by church, state and lection, is one of five held in Canada. High- aristocracy as a reaffirmation of power lighted are extinct species such as the Eskimo and prestige. Arranged by type of pro- curlew and the Great Auk, as well as birds John James Audubon, Whooping ject  royal and private architecture, now considered threatened, endangered or Crane. Hand-coloured engraving, public architecture and religious archi- vulnerable. “Audubon's approach to bird 73 x 99 cm. Collection of Metro tecture  the exhibition illustrates how portraiture revolutionized the way we see na- Toronto Reference Library in public buildings a visual rhetoric of ture,” says David Lank, curator of the exhibi- splendour and munificence often tran- tion. “Besides being the first to place birds in their natural habitat and paint scended national boundaries, while resi- them life-size, he had an extraordinary artistic ability and a scientific accuracy dential architecture tended to take on a which pre-dates the invention of photography.” The exhibition’s next stop will national style. It also shows how ba- be the Winnipeg Art Gallery (Feb. 13 to April 2). roque architecture, despite the weighty nature of its materials, was motivated by a gravity-defying urge to create illusions of infinite possibility. Northern lights

Continuing at the National Gallery of Canada (national.gallery.ca) until Jan. 2, Baltic Light: Early Open Air Painting in Denmark and North Germany is the only North American presentation of this luminous exhibition of early 19th-century plein air painting by artists centred in Copenhagen, Hamburg, Berlin and Dres- den. Inspired by discoveries in botany, geology and meteorology, and influenced by the longstanding Roman tradition of painting outdoors, these artists left the studio behind in favour of the direct observation of natural phenomena. Despite their fresh approach to composition and their preoccupa- tion with light as a legitimate sub- ject for painting, the reputation of these painters was largely eclipsed by the Impressionists. However, like Impressionism, northern Eu- ropean painting exerted an influence on our own Group of Seven. Returning from an exhibition of Scandinavian art in 1913, J.E.H. MacDonald remarked that the Antonio Rinaldi, Model for the Cathe- Martinus Rørbye, Vester Egede Church with works he had seen “began with dral of St. Isaac, St. Petersburg, c. 1768. Gisselfeld Convent in the Background, nature rather than art,” and that Wood, 310 × 245 × 208 cm. Research 1832. Oil on canvas. Ny Carlsberg Glyp- “This is what we want to do with Museum of Academy of Arts of Russia, totek, Copenhagen Canada.” St. Petersburg

1568 JAMC • 14 DÉC. 1999; 161 (12) The Left Atrium

Failed utopia

Until Feb. 6, 2000, the Art Gallery of Windsor (www.mnsi.net/~agw) features Le Détroit, a new film installation and exhibition of photographs by Canadian multimedia artist Stan Douglas. Drawing on years of research in the Detroit area, Douglas examines the social conditions that give rise to the decay of modern cities, of which De- troit is an extreme example. His colour photographs expose the processes by which historical memory is overwritten by social change and the encroachment of nature upon the urban landscape. Inspired by the city’s long-standing association with machines and industry, the film installation is an adaptation of Shirley Jackson’s 1959 novel The Haunting of Hill House and Marie Hamlin’s 1883 chronicle, Leg- ends of Le Détroit, a compilation of oral histories that circulated among people of aboriginal and European descent living in the re- gion between the mid-17th and early 19th centuries. Douglas rein- terprets the conventions of popular media — in this case, horror movies and electronic music — to explore the impact of technology Stan Douglas, Michigan Theatre, 1997/98. C-print, on the social imagination. 45.7 x 55.9 cm

A pioneer in modernism Transformations

Assembling Sounds: the Drawings and Illustrations of Bertram Little known until recent years, Claude Cahun (1894–1954) Brooker is at the Winnipeg Art Gallery (www.wag.mb.ca) is currently the focus of a great deal of international atten- until Jan. 2, 2000. Brooker (1888–1955) played a significant tion. The first Canadian solo exhibition of her astonishing role as an artist, musician, writer and champion of the arts self-portraits, Don’t Kiss Me: Disruptions of the Self in the Work in Canada between of Claude Cahun, is at the Sherwood Village Branch of the the two World Dunlop Art Gallery (www.dunlopartgallery.org) in Regina Wars and has been from Dec. 17 to Jan. 30, 2000. Born Lucy Schwob, Cahun described as the was a poet, actress, sculptor, photomonteur and sometime- country’s first ab- associate of the French surrealists who gained some notoriety stract painter. His as a political and sexual revolutionary. Like Cindy Sherman move away from and other contemporary artists some 50 years later, Cahun representational art explored how the body is read according to cultural codes. toward abstraction Using costumes, masks stemmed from his and theatrical make-up desire to express to challenge normative spiritual ideas and views of women, she to unify painting postulated a new con- with other arts cept of identity that left such as poetry and room for ambiguity music — interests and the unknown.

he shared with his Ernest Mayer During World War II friend Lawren Bertram Brooker, Sounds Assembling, she was arrested by the Harris, unofficial 1928. Oil on canvas, 112.3 x 91.7 cm Nazis for openly resist- leader of the ing their occupation of Group of Seven. Presented in tandem with an exploration the Isle of Jersey. Much of his painting and writing in Sounds Assembling: Bertram of her work was de- Brooker in Winnipeg Collections, this exhibition of graphic stroyed and she was work features 70 abstract drawings, nature studies and illus- sentenced to death.

trations — work that Brooker considered as important as Fortunately, the war Jersey Museums Service and Presentation House Gallery his painting. Sounds Assembling, his most famous piece, rep- ended before her sched- Claude Cahun, Self-Portrait, c. resents a spiritual journal through time, space and sound. uled execution. 1927. Black and white photograph

CMAJ • DEC. 14, 1999; 161 (12) 1569 De l’oreille gauche

Photography of place Art of persuasion

To mark the millennium, the Southern Alberta Art As e-technologies revolu- Gallery (home.uleth.ca/~saag) invited Toronto photogra- tionize our habits of com- pher Geoffrey James to create a photographic portrait of munication, we might for- the city of Lethbridge. James made four visits to the Leth- get the important role that bridge area over a 12-month period and produced more diverse and often ephemeral than 250 images. His large-format black and white pho- print media have played in tographs of the city’s rural and urban landscape record defining the 20th century as what curator Joan Stebbins describes as the “uneasy al- the age of mass communica- liances” between culture and nature. She writes: “His pho- tion. Until Jan. 3, 2000, the tographs document a specific moment in time, but hold Art Gallery of Greater Vic- within them an acute awareness of the meaning of that toria (aggv.bc.ca) presents moment — an interval caught between the past and the Propaganda, Advertising & present. In the Graphic Arts in 20th Century Lethbridge pho- China, an intriguing collec- tographs, James tion of graphic materials Fabric advertisement, 1920s shows us some- produced in China during thing entirely the 20th century. The exhibition includes woodblock prints, new about our propaganda posters, advertisements, firework labels, joss pa- place; something per, decorative wrapping and luck-bestowing New Year’s Eve that we can’t see prints from private collections and the gallery’s own holdings. until he shows The woodblock prints bear the imprint of Soviet-style social- us, because it is ist realism; the advertising posters flog products ranging from too familiar.” perfume and cosmetics to alcohol and cigarettes. While cul- The Lethbridge tural and historical markers give these artifacts an intrinsic in- Project exhibition Geoffrey James, Chinese National terest, they may also lead viewers to pay more attention to continues until League, 1998. Silver gelatin print. 40.6 × the aesthetic appeal and persuasive power of the print media Jan. 15, 2000. 50.8 cm. Collection of the artist that surround us today.

Vancouver, Varley, Vanderpant

A sense of place infused with a sense of mystery inspires two exhibitions on view at the Vancouver Art Gallery (www.vanartgallery.bc.ca). Until Jan. 23, 2000, Visions of Paradise: Varley in British Columbia presents for the first time in more than 40 years the major works created by Group of Seven founding member Frederick Horsman Varley during his Vancouver years (1926 to 1936). The portraits and landscapes from this period reflect not only the nationalist and anti-classicist motivations of the Group of Seven but Varley’s growing in- terest in theosophy, Eastern mysticism and the psychological interpretation of colour. Continuing until Feb. 13, 2000, The Rhetoric of Utopia: John Vanderpant and his Contempo- raries explores another anti-establishment strain in the development of Canadian art. Like many of his contemporaries on the West Coast, painter and photographer John Vanderpant rejected the colonial aesthetics that dominated the art scene in the 1920s Frederick Varley, The Cloud, Red and 30s in favour of a modernist aesthetic. Mountain, 1927–28. Oil on can- His strikingly optimistic work asserted the vas. Art Gallery of Ontario, Bequest beauty of both natural and architectural John Vanderpant, Lilies, 1935. Silver bro- of Charles S. Band, Toronto, 1970. forms and thus the potential for the harmo- mide print. Vancouver Art Gallery Acqui- © Estate of Kathleen G. McKay nious coexistence of nature and technology. sition Fund

1570 JAMC • 14 DÉC. 1999; 161 (12)