In master engraver George A. Walker's newest work, The Mysterious Death of Tom Thomson, the circumstances surrounding the death and disappearance of the iconic Canadian artist are explored through some one hundred and nine wood engravings, creating a work that eulogizes not only the artist himself, but the struggle of the artist's attempt to express himself while constrained by society, the reality of the moment, and mortality.

George A. Walker is an award-winning wood engraver, book artist and author whose courses in book arts and printmaking at OCAD University in Toronto, where he is Associate Professor, have been offered continuously since 1985. His artworks are held in collections ranging from the Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto, The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, and The Museum of Modern Art (MoMa), New York City and he has had over 15 solo exhibitions as well as been included in more than 100 group shows. Among many book projects-both trade and limited edition-Walker has illustrated 2 hand-printed books by internationally acclaimed author Neil Gaiman. Walker also illustrated the first Canadian edition of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass, both published by the Cheshire Cat Press. The Cheshire Cat Press is a partnership between Andy Malcolm and George Walker which continues to publish limited edition books featuring the writing of Lewis Carroll.

George Walker was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Art in 2002 for his contribution to the cultural area of Book Arts. He is also a member of the Arts and Letters Club of Toronto where he was featured in a solo exhibition of his books and printmaking in the spring of 2019. Walker's latest book-length project presents the iconic life of Hollywood silent-film star Mary Pickford in a suite of 87 wood engravings.

George A. Walker's profile page

• Short-listed, Doug Wright Award

'The Mysterious Death of Tom Thomson (Porcupine's Quill), a graphic biography of Canada's most mythic painter, is a masterpiece of both creation and reproduction. George A Walker's series of more than a hundred woodblock prints moves beyond pure homage; it recasts surviving photographs of the artist with Thomson's own manic paintings while also introducing searing new images. Virtually nothing is known about Thomson's violent death, but Walker's haunting depictions of the event are so striking that they seem to come from some morbid photographic source. The simplicity of the woodblock medium can make the narrative difficult to follow, but this turns out to be Walker's great strength. He challenges his reader with a poetic ambiguity that makes for an active, rewarding read.'

Maisonneuve

'In 109 black-and-white woodblock engravings, artist George A. Walker explores the life and tragically premature death of Tom Thomson (1877-1917), one of Canada's greatest and most influential artists. Walker's wordless ''narrative'' begins in Thomson's youth and takes us through to his years of productive work and his mysterious death by drowning in Ontario's Algonquin Park. Walker also pays homage to Thomson's influence on Canadian culture and explores his own relationship to Thomson, whom he counts as a major inspiration for his work, and coming to terms with his death. Canadian curator Tom Smart provides a quick but useful introduction, and there is a heartfelt afterword from Walker.'

Globe & Mail

'Visuals can often speak things words cannot. The Mysterious Death of Tom Thomson is an original graphic novel from George A. Walker, providing a wordless story, processing the narrative entirely through black and white imagery, following the story of Tom Thomson, a painter who faced premature death and left his legacy with the famed Canadian Group of Seven Painters. The Mysterious Death of Tom Thomson is a fine addition to community library art and graphic novel collections.'

Small Press Bookwatch

'George A. Walker, the talented wood engraver and ''book artist'', has composed The Mysterious Death of Tom Thomson in 109 woodblock engravings presented in a handsome volume by Porcupine's Quill. While reading Walker's wordless narrative, one becomes eerily aware of silence: wordlessness itself becomes a mode of silence, and an agent of voiceless voicing, unheard dialogue and mute interrogation. In fact, it's not easy to use words to describe what happens once you are engaged in this sequence of woodblock images: events proceed: a man, Tom Thomson, emerges as an increasingly solitary figure, slowly withdrawing from urbanity and emerging in the wilderness, where, as different versions have it (and Walker's is one of them), he meets his fate. The effect of the wordless imagery is strangely acoustic: a silence filled with echoes. The book does not want to be put down; instead the reader, the observer, re-engages again and again, returning to read into the images a story that eludes understanding just as understanding seems to elude stories without words. This is a book for the shade on a bright summer day.'

Geist

'[Walker's account] offers readers a sense of how [Thomson's] life must have felt – from the sense of purpose of getting his work exhibited, to the more relaxed, idyllic days painting in Algonquin Park, and finally, to the altercation that preceded his death.'

Literary Treats

?Mystery, haunting images, strong emotions, one Canadian artist's tribute to another — there's much of interest in this book. One thing you won—t find, however, is a lot of text. The artist who created the book, George Walker, calls it a “wordless narrative?, and he uses only pictures to tell the story of Tom Thomson's untimely death in 1917. It's a story that's been told many times before, and in several versions, both in print and onscreen — although never quite like this. The book is not really a “whodunnit?, because there is no text, and therefore no names. But clearly, according to this version, Tom did not just trip over a fishing line. The lack of specifics is actually a plus: foul play was surely a factor in Thomson's death, but naming names is tricky, and Walker's wordless narrative neatly sidesteps the need to do so.?

National Gallery of Canada

'The circumstances that surround the death and disappearance of Canadian landscape painter Tom Thomson are still unknown. Just as interesting as his mysterious death is the life of artistry that he lead.

'In this beautiful book, Walker pays homage to Thomson in the most fitting way possible – through skilled artistry. Scenes from Thomson's life unfold through this rarely-used creative form. These gorgeous woodblock engravings are as intriguing as they are skillful. A good book for lovers of art and artists.'

Ehmerican Book Girl

'A celebrated and widely recognized master of his craft, Walker's work has a rough-hewn grace and concision augmented by an uncanny ability to convey his characters' emotions with but chisel and wood, ink, and paper.'

ForeWord