Jo Cook & Perro Verlag Books by Artists - The Unreadable Sacred - Exhibition Text

Aug 26, 2026

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The exhibition text explores how Jo Cook extended her printmaking and paper-based practices into artist book publishing grounded in collaboration and reciprocity. It highlights Perro Verlag’s generative editorial, typographic, and letterpress experimentation, including Cook’s variable pseudonyms and past projects. The Unreadable Sacred presents selected prints, paintings, and paper works from SFU Special Collections and Rare Books, positioning marginalia, annotation, and unstable thought as creative engines.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages12

Reading Time18 min

AccessFree to download

Exhibition Text

Collaboration and small press impact

Perro Verlag and editorial experimentation

The Unreadable Sacred exhibition scope

List of Works

Jo Cook & Perro Verlag Books by Artists: The Unreadable Sacred NOV 14, 2023-FEB 10, 2024 Exhibition Text Is finding a larger and larger audience for one’s work so important? Couldn’t small, local editions contribute to change as much as larger print runs? […] I think local small presses can work with whatever size community they find themselves in to invent ways of doing / making things that call into question just that: “the difference between reality and our perception of reality.” — Jo Cook1 The late Jo Cook extended her own artistic practice of printmaking, collage, painting and paper-based works into an array of artist book publishing centered on the premise of collaboration and reciprocity. Her dedicated contributions to the camaraderie of artist-led publishing included curating and organizing artist book exhibitions across numerous literary and visual arts community-driven spaces on the West Coast, including The Regional Assembly of Text, Lucky’s Comics, Ministry of Casual Living, and others. Together with artist Wesley Mulvin, Perro Verlag Books by Artists supported the publication of generative exchanges in editorial, typographic, and artistic experimentation. Through an artistic practice and letter press studio established on Mayne Island, and often using Cook’s variable pseudonyms—Bucky Fleur, Florentine Perro, and Frances Zorn—Perro Verlag produced and distributed many artists’works and series, including The Hell Passport Project (2006-2008), Collected Works of Frances Zorn (2014), Optophonetic Poetics Initiative and Documents of Psychic Amateurs (DoPA) projects (2010) . Cook described Perro Verlag (perro translates to “dog” in Spanish and verlag to “publishing house” in German) as a press “that recognizes the importance of unstable thoughts and impractical, possibly visionary intentions,” which emphasized the ulterior possibilities of print found within the conversant spaces of marginalia, annotation, citation, and multiplicitous authorial, editorial, and serial print monikers. The Unreadable Sacred pairs selected prints, paintings, and paper works by Jo Cook along with Perro Verlag Books by Artists held in the Simon Fraser University Special Collections and Rare Books. In partnership with W.A.C. Bennett Library Special Collectionsand Rare Books, SFU Burnaby Curated by Kristy Trinier with research assistance from Wesley Mulvin and Kasper Feyrer 1. The Capilano Review 3 .28, Winter 2016. List of Works 1. Jo Cook, Untitled (Abstractions in red and white), n.d. Collage and gouache, mixed media on black paper, Courtesy of Wesley Mulvin 2. Jo Cook, Untitled (Abstractions in red, white, blue and yellow), n.d. Collage and gouache, mixed media on black paper, Courtesy of Wesley Mulvin 3. Perro Verlag Books by Artists, The Hell Passport Project, n.d. 19 chapbooks, Courtesy of Wesley Mulvin 4. Jo Cook, Untitled (Gill of good red wine…), n.d. Collage and ink, mixed media on paper, framed, Courtesy of Kasper Feyrer and Wesley Mulvin 5. Jo Cook, The Greatest Bodies of the World, n.d. Five original publication pages with unbound cover, ink and gouache on paper, Courtesy of Wesley Mulvin 6. Jo Cook, Untitled (Collage on unbound book pages of Télémaque/Telemacus, Book II, a discourse on epic poetry), n.d. Four double-fold publication pages from Les Aventures De Télémaque, Fils D’ulysse, Vol. 2, ink & gouache on paper, Courtesy of Wesley Mulvin 7. Ed Varney, The Book of Nada (Mayne Island: Perro Verlag), 2011 Illustrations by Jo Cook, edition 239 of 250 Courtesy of W.A.C. Bennett Library Special Collection and Rare Books at SFU Burnaby 8. Perro Verlag Books by Artists, The Hell Passport Project, n.d. 24 chapbooks with box covered with handmade paper Courtesy of W.A.C. Bennett Library Special Collection and Rare Books at SFU Burnaby 9. Derek Beaulieu, Quartet for 6 voices, n.d. Perro Verlag Books by Artists, edition of 50, signed Courtesy of W.A.C. Bennett Library Specia

FAQs

What guiding ideas shaped Jo Cook’s artist book publishing?

Her publishing centered on collaboration and reciprocity, extending printmaking, collage, painting, and paper-based work into shared editorial practices.

How did Perro Verlag Books by Artists approach creative production and distribution?

It supported generative exchanges across editorial, typographic, and artistic experimentation, often through letterpress work linked to Mayne Island and using Cook’s variable pseudonyms.

What does The Unreadable Sacred include and where is it drawn from?

It pairs selected prints, paintings, and paper works by Jo Cook held in Simon Fraser University Special Collections and Rare Books.

Aug 26, 2026

Upload by Fahsai