06/01/2026
As part of a new series highlighting works in the exhibition ‘Back to the Land’, we are looking at ‘Belonging to Place’, a zine project created by U of T Scarborough students in collaboration with artist Shannon Gerard.
Currently on view in the Instructional Centre atrium at U of T Scarborough, 'Back to the Land' brings works from the Collection of the Doris McCarthy Gallery into conversation with works produced by the students in the Environmental Studies course ESTB03: Back to the Land, designed by Dr. Nicole Klenk. Built into the course were a series of artist-led workshops that promoted experiential learning through the creation of collective student artworks.
For this zine project, students selected a place on campus where they felt a sense of belonging—through memory, routine, comfort, or connection—and created a print of that place using techniques introduced by artist Shannon Gerard. Each student produced enough copies for the class, creating a zine that became a collection of overlapping experiences of campus life and reflection on how sharing these perspectives can foster more inclusive, relational understandings of place.
The zines were hand-bound with linen yarn spun by student Kateline To from flax grown at the U of T Scarborough campus farm, grounding the project in land-based materials and practices.
Artist Shannon Gerard led the print/zine-making workshop, as one of the programs for the 2024 Doris McCarthy Gallery exhibition ‘Art Farm’. Shannon crochets (a lot), makes books, quilts political protest banners and produces site-specific textile installations. As a professional mischief maker, her public/pedagogical projects emphasize the materials and ethos of independent publishing as social-political engagements. Shannon is an Associate Professor in Publications and Print Media at OCAD University.
'Back to the Land' asks us to consider sustainability not merely as a set of practices, but as a way of being in the world, and to envision futures shaped by reciprocity, humility, and an ethic of care. The exhibition runs to July 31, 2026.
https://dorismccarthygallery.utoronto.ca/exhibitions/back-to-the-land
