Winter Count: Embracing the Cold (Bilingual)

Katerina Atanassova, Wahsontiio Cross, Anabelle Kienle Ponka, Jocelyn Piirainen

Winter Count: Embracing the Cold draws inspiration from the Plains First Nations’ practices of recording significant events each winter, a visual reminder that helps structure histories and traditions passed down to future generations. This handsome volume explores how winter has long shaped Indigenous, Canadian settler and northern European art, uniting different cultural perspectives through diverse themes of storytelling, effects of light, physical adaptation and community and isolation.

Presenting a selection of works dating from the early 19th century to the present day, including those of artists such as Kenojuak Ashevak, J.E.H. MacDonald, Claude Monet, Kent Monkman, Meagan Musseau and Jin-me Yoon, Winter Count features approximately 165 plates, along with illustrated essays by curators from the National Gallery of Canada. The result is a book that invites readers to see winter anew – not as a season to be endured, but as a source of invention, connection and mutual respect across time and place. 

Bilingual
Hardcover | 304 pages 
Publication Date: 2025