Geneviève Chevalier’s artistic thinking unfolds as a system in an analogic relationship with her preferred subjects. Her projects overlap to the point that they offer meta-reflections within a gestalt approach. The three parts of her Mirement/Towering project, Towering/The Menagerie and Towering/The Herbarium, Towering/Trissements, and Towering/Instability, presented respectively at Dazibao, the Foreman Art Gallery of Bishop’s University, and Galerie UQO between 2021 and 2024, are part of a much broader body of thought regarding how the legacy of modernity affects our comprehension of nature. The project’s title refers to a navigation term for a refraction effect that makes objects look taller than they are – an image that suggests questioning the foundations of modern natural history and revealing its multiple sociopolitical ramifications. 

In this book, we take stock of the project as a whole and set out to explore the territories of thought underlying Chevalier’s practice. The discursive framework established here situates her work within a developing theoretical horizon on contemporary art and philosophy of nature. The essays respond to each other via transversal concepts, as do the respective programs of the three organizations that have come together to support the project.

Exhibitions and publication under the direction of Gentiane Bélanger, France Choinière, Marie-Hélène Leblanc
Publication coordination: Jennifer Pham
Design:Studio TagTeam
Translation: Jo-Anne Balcaen, Käthe Roth, Colette Tougas
Editing: Janou Gagnon, Emma-Kate Guimond, Käthe Roth, Marie Saadeh, Colette Tougas

This publication received the support from the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec and the Faculté d’aménagement, d’architecture, d’art et de design of the Université Laval.