What the Hand Sees

A celebration of the whole of Claire Wilks’ work, and her presence in the world as a woman of great character and a singular artist. The book presents her career – with ample selections of her drawings, sculptures, and monoprints – including appearances in Rome, Stockholm, Jerusalem, Zagreb, New York, Venice, Mexico City and, of course, her home town, Toronto. In the company of her works are commentaries, critical responses, poems, photographs, and art by many who were touched by her career and personality: Anne Michaels, John Montague, Priscila Uppal, D.M. Thomas, Timothy Findley, Mary Meigs, Charles Pachter, William Ronald, John Reeves, Nigel Dickson, Tom Sandler, Branko Gorjup, S.W. Hayter, Ludwig Zeller, Michel Christensen, Deborah Samuel, Aleksandar Tisma, Slavko Mihalić, Stephanie Rayner, Charles Pachter, Vera Frenkel, Gloria Vanderbilt and more.

Claire Wilks is a Canadian artist who worked in drawing, brush drawing, lithography, monoprinting, and sculpture in bronze and clay. Her works are in numerous private collections in Canada and abroad, and have been exhibited in the National Gallery of Canada, and in Toronto, Calgary, Stockholm, New York, Jerusalem, Venice, Rome, and Zagreb – where she is the only Canadian to have been given a one-woman retrospective in the State National Museum – and in Mexico City and Monterrey – where she represented Canada during a month-long celebration of Canada In The World as “a woman of great character and a singular artist.”