This Is not a Hoax by Heather Jessup

This Is not a Hoax by Heather Jessup

This Is Not a Hoax shows how the work of some contemporary artists and writers intentionally disrupts the curatorial and authorial practices of the country’s most respected cultural institutions: art galleries, museums, and book publishers.

This first-ever study of contemporary Canadian hoaxes in visual art and literature asks why we trust authority in artistic works and how that trust is manifest. It claims that hoaxes, far from being merely lies meant to deceive or wound, may exert a positive influence. Through their insistent disobedience, they assist viewers and readers in re-examining unquestioned institutional trust, habituated cultural hierarchies, and the deeply inscribed racism and sexism of Canada’s settler-colonial history.

Through its attentive look at hoaxical works by Canadian artists Iris Häussler, Brian Jungen, and Rebecca Belmore, photographer Jeff Wall, and writers and translators David Solway and Erin Mouré, this book celebrates the surprising ways hoaxes call attention to human capacities for flexibility, adaptation, and resilience in a cultural moment when radical empathy and imagination is critically needed.

Heather Jessup holds a doctorate from the University of Toronto and teaches English at Langara College, BC. Her first novel, The Lightning Field, was a finalist for the Raddall and Savage Book Awards, and was nominated for the International Dublin Literary Award. She is co-curator and lead director of the Prud’homme Library Project.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781771127370
ISBN 10	1771127376
Title	This Is not a Hoax
Author	Heather Jessup
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Wilfrid Laurier University Press
Year published	2026-11-17
Number of pages	227
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.