Eco-art had meaning in the 1970s, and eco-artists were, for the most part, visual creators of the environmental movement. Much of the work that fell into the category was made on site – on beaches, in oceans, forests, or mountain tops. But like the term “abstract,” eco-art has become more description than concept.

I’m not sure Montreal art critic John K. Grande would agree with this. Having written extensively on artists who are dedicated to coupling nature with art, Grande still uses the term close to its original meaning, albeit he is open to its evolutional expansion. Intertwining, his second book, includes more collected writings on eco-artists as well as artists who use technology.

Discussion on the real (Nature) and unreal (its aberrations) are two topics worth exploring together. Has eco-art made an impact on the fine art or environmental front? How has the eco-art movement evolved, and where is it headed? Unfortunately, Grande suggests in his preface these are topics he might address, but he rarely does. Two essays, for instance, on group projects in Quebec, seem worthy shows for leaping into broader theories, but Grande breezes over analytic discussion, sticking to a play-by-play of each installation. Later, he discusses a Montreal exhibition on the making of Disneyland, and a Toronto exhibition of Japanese contemporary art – both being the antithesis of eco-art to the point where Grande seems only partly amused, but mostly irritated, by popular culture’s overwhelming lust for the fake.

Having seen many of the exhibitions Grande writes about, there is a subjectivity here, a vernacular that speaks to the converted, the I-want-nature-in-my-art crowd. Ideas are plentiful, simply by the number of artists he writes about, but rarely does he let the topics suggested by the works expand his own ideas, which is disappointing, since Grande is clearly versed and passionate about nature’s role in art.