Françoise Sullivan. An Imaginary Line

Authors: Louise Déry, Gianfranco Sanguinetti

Artist: Françoise Sullivan

Françoise Sullivan. Une ligne imaginaire / An Imaginary Line carries on from the exhibition catalogue Françoise Sullivan. Trajectoires resplendissantes / Radiant Trajectories (Galerie de l’UQAM, 2017) to gather knowledge that has recently come to light and places it in context by more clearly delineating the interconnection between the development of the artist’s thinking and the work she produced in 1970s. The book forms a kind of narrative that is embodied in the places where she lived, in particular Italy, and focuses on her work related to conceptual art anchored in photography, film, and performance actions.

Throughout, it abundantly quotes the artist and highlights often new information provided by her and her archive. It depicts the works – many of them unknown until recently – in their exhibition context and a “portfolio” section describes and illustrates more specifically thirty or so examples from the 1970-1980 decade. The last part of the book serves as a kind of scrapbook of photos, notes and documents that in turn further our understanding of this pivotal period in Sullivan’s career, focusing on her closely intertwined roles as a woman, mother, artist and citizen.