TO SHOW, TO GIVE, TO MAKE IT BE THERE: EXPANDED LITERARY PRACTICES IN VANCOUVER: 1954-1969, SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY GALLERY, AND GEOFFREY FARMER: EVERY LETTER OF THE ALPHABET, 1875 POWELL STREET AT VICTORIA DRIVE.

The exhibition to show, to give, to make it be there: Expanded Literary Practices in Vancouver: 1954-1969 is an archeology. Guest-curated at the SFU Gallery by Michael Turner, it examines what he calls "expanded" or "collagist" practices in Vancouver during a specific fifteen-year period. A lot of underappreciated work is featured here, such as the text art of Maxine Gadd and Judith Coperthorne. At times, the exhibition feels as if it forces an antagonism between literary practices of the 60s that were less disparate than the exhibition posits. What to show, to give establishes, for example, is that "straight" or "modernist" practices (such as those found in magazines like the Georgia …