Nelson Necrology: A Necromantic Archive, an artist book workshop

The artist books created during the workshops will form the Nelson Necrology, which will also include works by Billy Flowery Allen, and this collection will be reproduced and shared as part of NMAG’s participation in the upcoming Remember the Dead event at Nelson Memorial Park (November 8th, 2026). Workshop participants will also have the opportunity to participate at the Remember the Dead event.

Necrology is a term that, while in common usage from the mid 19th through early 20th century, has faded into obscurity. It refers to both a list of the dead related to a specific time, place or event, and a death notice accompanied by a biographical narrative (an obituary). The word combines the Latin necro (meaning “death” or “corpse”) with -logy (From the Greek logia = “to speak, tell”), so to speak of the dead, with a strong emphasis on honouring their memory. The term Necromancy is a ritual process of conjuring and communicating with the dead.

Billy Flowery Allen (aka Andrew Hunter) is an artist, writer, researcher, story-teller, and necromancer. Over a thirty-five year career in the arts they: produced exhibitions and publications for institutions across Canada and Internationally; held curatorial positions at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Vancouver Art Gallery, Art Gallery of Hamilton and Kamloops Art Gallery, among others; taught graduate level courses (at OCADU and Waterloo Architecture); lectured widely on museum and curatorial practice, and on their own work; received numerous grants and awards. Their publications include: Colville; In The Ward; The Idea of North: Lawren Harris (with Steve Martin); Every. Now. Then: Reframing Nationhood (with Anique Jordan), Cul-de-Sac; Hanksville (which received a Western Canada Magazine Award); and Billy’s Vision. They have written and lectured critically about the persistence of Whiteness and Colonial models in museums, curatorial practice and public history, focussing on the continuing erasure and marginalization of a true diversity of cultures and communities. They are consistently drawn to the lives of individuals who are barely present in traditional historical records and who have been excluded due to their culture, class, appearance, beliefs, and neurodivergence; they employ techniques common to creative non-fiction to expand and extrapolate on these ghost narratives. Their work often engages with hauntings, failed memory, trauma and mental illness, including: Lalla Rookh: A Poetic Archive, To A Watery Grave and Dark Matter: The Great War and Fading Memory. Their most recent research/presentation project, I, In None of This, Find Place or Refuge, was a true crime field research investigation co-developed with their canine companion Zag in 2023. Their latest book, It Was Dark There All The Time: Sophia Burthen and the Legacy of Slavery in Canada, was published in 2022 by Goose Lane Editions, and was critically praised by such esteemed writers as Lawrence Hill and c.sgiscombe. They contributed writing to NMAG’s exhibition Gu Xiong: Unknown Remains (2019).

Most recently, Billy has focused on drawing/collage and the making of books, scrolls and maps that continue their engagement with archival material and necromancy.