The Art section is one of our most visually rewarding to browse, filled with exhibition catalogues, artist monographs, and general surveys of painting, sculpture, and photography from across periods and regions. Many of these books are worth owning for the reproductions alone, even when the accompanying text is secondary to the interest.

We keep a strong regional focus on Canadian art, including Rocky Mountain and Group of Seven-era landscape painting, alongside international art history covering everything from classical periods through to contemporary movements.

Because exhibition catalogues are often printed only in the quantities needed for a single show, this is a category where a used copy may be the only realistic way to find a particular title once the exhibition has closed and the book has gone out of print entirely.

We also carry a rotating selection of photography collections, from early mountaineering and landscape photographers who worked in the Rockies to more contemporary fine art photography, along with a small shelf of art theory and criticism for readers who want to go beyond the pictures themselves.

Local and regional artists get particular attention here. We regularly hear from customers who picked up a small, self-published catalogue years after an artist’s only local show and have never been able to find another copy anywhere else.

That is exactly the kind of book a used bookstore is best positioned to preserve, and we treat those slim, unassuming catalogues with the same seriousness as a major museum volume.

• Artist monographs and exhibition catalogues
• Canadian and Rocky Mountain art
• Group of Seven-era landscape painting
• Art history, movements, and period surveys
• Photography collections, historic and contemporary
• Sculpture and mixed media
• Art theory and criticism
• Small-press and self-published local catalogues

Because so much of an art book’s value lies in reproduction quality, we recommend browsing this shelf in person where possible. A description of condition can tell you whether the jacket is worn, but only opening the book tells you whether the colour plates have held up.

Print quality can vary considerably even between two copies of the same title from different printings, and where we hold more than one printing we are happy to compare them for you before you decide.

For art titles we describe the dust jacket, board corners, spine fade, and whether any plates have been removed, since plate removal is unfortunately common in older illustrated books.

For catalogues we also note the exhibition, venue, and year where they are printed in the book, because those details are often the only way to identify an otherwise untitled volume.