A wilful young woman revels in the surprisingly-inclusive communal aspects of life in the punk / anarchist counterculture as it was practised in the hardscrabble underbelly of Sault Ste Marie on the cusp of the 21st century.

Megan Speers was born in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario in 1986 and lived there in a subcultural mix of punks, modern-day hippies, travellers, and anarchists until she was seventeen. Her mother was a cabinetmaker and woodworker, which led Megan to a profound appreciation of wood and handcrafted items — a big part of the reason she chose to “writ” Wanderlust in wood engraving rather than the less demanding linocut. Shortly before she turned eighteen, Megan moved to Toronto to enrol at the Ontario College of Art and Design. She graduated in June, 2009 after studying Printmaking, with a focus on bookbinding and book arts, and English. In her final year at OCAD Megan was the recipient of the Bill Poole Memorial Award (for book arts) and the Diana Myers Book Award.

Megan Speers' profile page

• Short-listed, ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year

With Wanderlust, the masters in art book production at Porcupine's Quill have trained a spotlight on another talented craftsperson. In this third in their series of wordless novels edited by the notable George A. Walker, award-winning printmaker Megan Speers combines talent in both carving and storytelling to create an optimistic and enjoyable book.

A wordless novel, told in pictures, necessitates that its readers tell the story to themselves; what follows both hews to and creates anew an oral tradition. A certain universal accessibility is produced as Speers allows a simple tale to speak for itself through symbols, interpreted in the language and experience of the reader (and perhaps, even the woodcuts themselves could serve as a tangible document for those to whom images are not accessible). Here, even dialogue balloons themselves contain images, and an interesting mise en abime effect is produced.

The degrees of detail and texture betray an enormouse amount of work and care taken in producing the series of fifty woodcuts that narrate this piece. It's interesting to note that Speers would spend such time working (presumably) in one place in order to depict a tale about motion: it seems to be a subject close to the artist's heart. The archetypal nature of the story, which includes various small town punk life landmarks (e.g., being broke, dumster diving, and enjoying time spent with friends) is rendered in a medium that reads as permanent, the deep black ink serving to solidify the images.

Relating such varied experiences as targeting and brutality at the hands of police, or cruising on a skateboard down an open path on a breezy, sunny day, Speers explores both the light and dark sides of life. Still, these panels depict some of the happiest moments of camaraderie in the pitch of night, and in so doing break down that very binary.

Speers's style is clearly influenced by contemporary graphic art and animation, and includes a variety of frame/cell sizes, creative use of depth of field, and is filled with emotional resonance. It would fit in well next to Liz Baillie's My Brain Hurts on the bookshelf of anyone who identifies with newfound joy in autonomy -- particularly those who appreciate the prototypical black and white punk aesthetic. Each of these woodcuts is a singular work of art, and Wanderlust is a very pleasing read.

ForeWord Reviews

'A wordless novel in the tradition on Lynd Ward, Frans Masereel, & co., Wanderlust follows a teenage girl's punk life-style through the summer days of booze, bands, boys and the occasional bit of dumpster diving. A well laid out visual tale leaving the reader with a number of memorable engravings of anarchy and bliss.'

Bytown Bookshop

'With each wood engraving Speers creates images that are arrestingly simple but at the same time astonishing with the way they capture conversations, movement and detail. With one image on each page, Wanderlust invites you to think about each impression on its own in addition to how it fits into the overall puzzle of the author's story and life.'

Shameless Magazine

'Wanderlust unites book nerds and punking adolscents alike. Told without text, through 50 unimaginably labour-intensive, hand-carved Canadian maple wood engravings, Wanderlust depicts a night out on the town in Sault Ste. Marie with a dumpster-diving teen. Megan Speers' setting down of the story contradicts the impermanence of youth and of the 'Packsack People,' for whom the book is dedicated. It's this juxtaposition, 'visualizinga time and place that is not long on recorded history' as it's put in the foreword, that elevates this simple story for reflection and careful interpretation.'

Salon