When artist Gathie Falk was growing up on the Prairies, apples were rationed like candy. But from an isolated and impoverished childhood, Falk went on to a successful career in off-beat performance art, installation, sculpture, and painting. Now 72 and living in Vancouver, she was honoured for her contribution to the arts in 1997 with an Order of Canada citation.

Robin Laurence, Bruce Grenville, Mayo Graham, and other writers and curators have contributed essays to Gathie Falk, a collection highlighting a variety of works and periods from Falk’s career.

As Vancouver art critic Robin Laurence tells us in her interview-based chronology, Falk dealt with her hard-luck upbringing (including her father’s death at a young age, her mother’s Alzheimer’s, and her own short-lived marriage) by finding beauty in everyday items and using her Mennonite religion as a guide for thrifty, creative living.

There is modesty in Falk’s subject matter: shoes, cabbages, house dresses, and kitchen chairs are among the recurring objects. From the book’s numerous colour and black and white plates, one can see Falk’s talent for turning the mundane into the opulent and at times surreal.