The exhibition Paper Doll takes as its point of departure a little known archival collection of hand-made paper dolls and doll clothes by the poet Sylvia Plath that reveal her early skills as a visual artist and designer. Although historically regarded as ephemera, the paper doll operates within the feminine narratives of domesticity, fashion and celebrity culture. The exhibition provides a space for the interplay between the Plath material and the work of seven contemporary artists. Its accompanying catalogue provides an overview of these works with an insightful essay by the curator, Anne Koval.

Anne Koval is Professor of Art History, Museum and Curatorial Studies at Mount Allison University. She is the author of Mary Pratt: A Love Affair with Vision, Whistler in His Time, and the co-author of James McNeill Whistler: Beyond the Myth. She has written on Anna Torma for the Textile Museum of Canada and her writing on contemporary art has appeared in several edited volumes, including Stitching the Self: Identity and the Needle Arts, More Caught in the Act: An Anthology of Performance Art by Canadian Women, and The Radcliffe Line and Other Geographies: Sarindar Dhaliwal, which includes a series of ekphrastic poems by Koval. She has curated exhibitions at the Owens Art Gallery, the Mendel Art Gallery, the Banff Park Museum, and the Confederation Centre Art Gallery, which included the work of Ed Pien, Merle McMaster, D’Arcy Wilson, Diana Thorneycroft, Aganetha Dyck, Barb Hunt, Jeannie Thib, Janice Wright Cheney, Cindy Sherman, and Sylvia Plath.

Anne Koval's profile page