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| The Place of Scraps (Talon Books, 2013) |
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| Totem Poles, Vol. 1 (Ottawa: King's Printer, 1950) |
The Place of Scraps "explores the complicated relationship between First Nations cultures and ethnography. [These] poems simultaneously illuminate Barbeau’s intentions and navigate the repercussions of the anthropologist’s actions." - explains Abel on his website.
Mercedes Eng explains, "Totem poles tell the history of a people. Like its source, Scraps deploys linguistic and visual systems of representation to record First Nations history but unlike its source, it reveals anthropology as a colonial weapon in its creative distillation of Barbeau’s ethnography." Read the rest of her consideration of The Place of Scraps at Jacket 2, here.
Read an interview on Lemonhound here, more about Abel's project here, here and here, watch Abel on YouTube here, visit his website here.
