Bonnie Devine: Land In War Exhibit Launch

Bonnie Devine is a cross-disciplinary artist, writer, and educator whose work is deeply immersed in the storytelling and image making traditions central to Anishinaabe culture.

In this exhibition, Devine reflects on land and how its possession and control are at the heart of warfare through the stories of eight pivotal figures: three Victoria Cross recipients interred in Owen Sound, four Indigenous warriors who fought on various North American battlegrounds, and her father, who served with the Canadian army in Belgium and Holland in 1944. The exhibition includes delicate charcoal portraits of these individuals, coupled with expansive landscape paintings inspired by their actions, and smaller monoprint studies of each battle site.

During a time marked by escalating global conflicts, Devine’s work prompts reflection on colonialism’s tendency to incite violent conflict and the devastation it causes to both people and the natural world. The exhibition asks that we consider not only the harm the land has suffered because of these conflicts, but also its enduring resilience and beauty.