| COMMENTARIES ON ATWOOD-PACHTER'S "THE JOURNALS OF SUSANNA MOODIE":
"This is truly the most magnificent book ever to be produced in Canada, a benchmark in the history of Canadian printing. It is immensely gratifying to find how Pachter's graphics so extend, expand and explore the inner meaning of Atwood's text."
Beth Miller
Special collections Librarian
University of Western Ontario
" ...What is so astonishing is that Pachter's illustrations complement the poems yet exist at the same time as separate and powerful works of art. There is an unusual dependence and simultaneous independence, similar to the best of the medieval illuminations which use the text as a springboard for creativity."
"Atwood speaks in a powerful modern voice. Pachter's uncompromisingly strong yet sensitive imagery hovers properly between his vision of what Atwood is saying and what the words say on the page.This book is a magnificent example of its kind, to be savored at once and in successive stages."
Cynthia Nadelman
Art News, New York
"...The poetry is moving, readable, engaging, and beautifully printed with Pachter's powerful, expressionistic and highly original images. This is a wonderful complement of poetry and visual art and Susanna Moodie's story is not lost in this burst of virtuosity."
"...Pachter's collaboration with Atwood represents a Canadian "moment of being" similar to that signalled by Ambroise Vollard's art book publications in Paris more than 50 years ago. When Pachter draws upon his understanding of human personality and his instinct for the historical and the narrative, he truly comes into his own. It is for this reason that The Journals of Susanna Moodie has provided such an auspicious outlet for Pachter's gifts and will remain one of his most successful creations. "
"...The cross-fertilization of poetry and the visual arts has been the springboard for a lot of good writing over the centuries. ...Pachter's silkscreen prints, almost Jungian in their elemental power, complement Atwood's work perfectly, not simply illustrating images from the poems, but finding visual correlatives for their desolate majesty... "The Journals of Susanna Moodie" is a haunting piece of work, enhanced terrifically by Pachter's visual riffing off Atwood's words. It is a synergistic masterpiece. "
Da Brewst, Amazon. com 1997
|
