Celebrating 50 years of a master craftsman

Arts and crafts help define a culture; they reflect people’s values, beliefs, and the things they hold dear. Artistic Glass: One Studio and Fifty Years of Stained Glass is the first of its kind: a full-color large format art book contextualizing the history of stained glass in Canada and showcasing the life and work of Josef Aigner, an artist and master craftsman whose 50-year career has had a lasting impact on the Canadian art landscape.

Written and photographed by the artist’s daughter, Cloe Aigner, Artistic Glass presents a visually stunning showcase and unique insight into the world of stained glass. Celebrating the mastery, innovation, and skill underlying the art form, Artistic Glass illustrates the diverse use of age-old and contemporary techniques behind the projects and reveals the processes of the artist, lifting the veil from this ancient craft. One of Canada’s most pervasive public forms of art, stained glass is a tradition worth acknowledgment and celebration.

Cloe Joël Aigner's profile page

Cloe Joël Aigner is a creative and communications specialist who has worked in media and marketing for over a decade. She works on specialized projects in writing, design, photography, research and teaches as a college instructor, psychotherapist, and health educator. She holds a bachelor’s degree in social sciences and communications, and a master’s degree in education from Simon Fraser University. Cloe’s artistic upbringing and training in her father’s stained glass studio was formative. She has self-published two children’s books, and Artistic Glass is her largest book project to date.

“In these pages, we find literal windows into an age-old art form.” — Literary Review of Canada