We’re delighted to announce that People Among the People: The Public Art of Susan Point is the winner of the 2019 City of Vancouver Book Award.

Artist Susan Point and author Robert D. Watt were presented with the prize on Saturday afternoon at the ceremony which took place at the central location of the Vancouver Public Library.

Susan Point’s unique artworks have been credited with almost single-handedly reviving the traditional Coast Salish art style. Once nearly lost to the effects of colonization, the crescents, wedges, and human and animal forms characteristic of traditional Coast Salish art can now be seen around the world—reinvigorated with modern materials and techniques—in her serigraphs and public art installations, as well as in the works of a new generation of artists that she’s inspired.

While the images and symbolism of Point’s work are often informed by surviving traditional Salish works and the Traditional Knowledge of her Musqueam family and elders, she has developed a unique and contemporary style that continues to evolve.

Produced in collaboration with the Museum of Anthropology at UBC, People Among the People beautifully displays the breadth and depth of her public art, from cast bronze faces in Whistler to massive carved cedar portals in Stanley Park to moulded polymer murals in Seattle.