Folklore of the Upper Nithsdale

cover image: Bad Omen 1 by Sara Willadsen (9″x12″; found paper, graphite, acrylic on paper; 2022.) Courtesy of the artist.

Folklore of the Upper Nithsdale: Stories of Witches, Ghosts, & Other Spirits from Sanquhar, Scotland

based on Folk Lore and Genealogies of Uppermost Nithsdale by William H. Wilson, illustrated & interpreted by contemporary collage artists.

Thirty-three collage artists illustrate stories of witches, ghosts, and other spirits from Sanquhar, Scotland. Using stories collected from William Wilson’s 1904 book, artists reimagine these tales in a 21st Century context and invite us to see folklore as the imagination of the past, understood in the present. The book includes an introduction by Ric Kasini Kadour.

“We present selections of artwork paired with some of Wilson’s original texts,” writes Ric Kasini Kadour in the Introduction. The artists “are operating from a 21st century vantage point, a view informed by nearly a century where folklore was academically studied and taught. The transformation was radical…The artists are directing our gaze to why these stories continue to matter today.”

The Other Side of Nith by Trish Baggott
12″x12″; collage of magazine and book fragments on cardstock with matte medium and mod podge; 2022. Courtesy of the artist.

Artist Illustrators
Tricia Baggott (Hull, Massachusetts, USA) | Aimée Henny Brown (New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada) | Ron Buffington (Signal Mountain, Tennessee, USA) | Cheryl Chudyk (Kirkland, Washington, USA) | Danielle Cole (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) | Shacqeel Coleby (Nassau, The Bahamas) | Sarah Cowling (London, Ontario, Canada) | Gregory Deddo (Hamilton, Massachusetts, USA) | Ben DiNino (Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA) | Deb Douglas (Joshua Tree, California, USA) | Michelle Echenique (San Francisco, California, USA) | Jennifer Evans (Denver, Colorado, USA) | EveNSteve (Pawlet, Vermont, USA) | Charity Lea Gianforte (Chicago, Illinois, USA) | Art Gilman (Summit, New Jersey, USA) | Virginia Hines (San Francisco, California, USA) | Anna Innocenti (Le Grand-Sacconex, Switzerland) | Ric Kasini Kadour (New Orleans, Louisiana, USA & Montreal, Quebec, Canada) | Terry Lamont (Peterborough, Ontario, Canada) | Ann E. Lawton (River Falls, Wisconsin, USA) | Emily Marbach (London, England, United Kingdom) | Ray Maseman (Chicago, Illinois, USA) | Teresa Meier (Bremerton, Washington, USA) | Colleen Monette (Seattle, Washington, USA) | Philomène Parmentier (Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium) | Ashley Pryor Geiger (Swanton, Ohio, USA) | Angela Puffer (Marana, Arizona, USA) | Frances Ryan (Denny, Scotland, United Kingdom) | Dafna Steinberg (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA) | Bria Sterling-Wilson (Owings Mills, Maryland, USA) | Richard Vergez (Dania Beach, Florida, USA) | Susan Weiss (Dorset, Vermont, USA) | Sara Willadsen (Sheboygan, Wisconsin, USA) | Patricia Currie Wren (San Francisco, California, USA) | Denise Zygadlo (Dumfries, Scotland, United Kingdom)

ABOUT THE BOOK
Folklore of the Upper Nithsdale: Stories of Witches, Ghosts, & Other Spirits from Sanquhar, Scotland
illustrated & interpreted by contemporary collage artists

Art Direction and Layout by Ric Kasini Kadour
Published by Maison Kasini Canada & Kolaj Institute
(original source material, Folk Lore and Geneologies of Uppermost Nithsdale by William Wilson, was published by Robert G. Mann and J. M. Laing in 1904)

130 pages, color illustrations
9″x6″
ISBN  978-1-927587-67-6
$25 USD/$35 CAD
Published by Maison Kasini Canada, Montreal, Quebec; 2023

Purchase the book in US dollars HERE.
Purchase the book in Canadian dollars HERE.