Joe’s Neighbours

By Mendelson Joe. Published by ECW Press of Toronto.

Outsider artist Mendelson Joe is a painter, activist, musician, and renowned “self-taughter.” But to the people living in the sparsely populated region west of Algonquin Park, he is also a neighbour.

With his latest book, Joe commemorates his neighbours in a series of portraits whose subjects range from Canadian musical icon Hawksley Workman to the man who installed Joe’s woodstove.

In Joe’s Neighbours, we get a glimpse into the lives of people who have strayed from the urban grid, and in Joe, we meet a “pathological painter” who is engaged with his community. Viewed through Joe’s idiosyncratic lens, rural Canadian life comes alive, and we meet a hub of artists, activists, and offbeat characters who truly embody Joe’s vision of neighbourliness.

Available for purchase through Cedar Canoe Books in Huntsville, Ontario, ECW Press and through Karen Robinson Gallery.

Published by ECW Press, March 2016, 120 pages, 6″ x 9″.
ISBN 9781770412996