Middle East

"Above the [chewed-book pieces] are the hornet's nests. The small ones come from Vancouver and the really large ones come from Texas and from Florida. I see them as metaphors for complex political situations like the Middle East or the European Union or fractures within the United States: you have all these hornet's nests stuck together and you can't separate them so how are they going to coexist? I began collecting hornet's nests by putting ads in the North Shore News saying "hornet's nests needed for science project, $10." I had two responses from two [young] kids, each came over with their fathers and they couldn't believe they were getting money for something like this. But the fact remained I needed more and I wasn't finding them in Vancouver. So I went to Ebay, where there is a relatively healthy trade in hornet's nests which are usualy sold to taxidermists, for birds that eat hornets out of the nest I guess. Just so you know, these nests here have been put in cryogenic storage for 48 hours to kill any cooties or weirdness they might have." —Douglas Coupland, speaking in the audio guide app that accompanied the Vancouver Art Gallery exhibition Douglas Coupland" everywhere is anywhere is anything is everything.

As a writer and visual artist, Coupland has often disregarded the traditional divide between these disciplines. Using letters, words and books as material and content for his art, Coupland harnesses the power of language in the visual realm.