Nelson Ball & Barbara Caruso / Home Project / A Photo Documentary

Left: a portrait of Nelson Ball by Barbara Caruso, distributed with Ball’s “Force Movements” (Ganglia, 1969). We used this portrait for the cover of Nelson’s Minutiae (Apt. 9 Press, 2014). Right: Caruso’s artist’s proof for the cover of Ball’s The Pre-Linguistic Heights (Coach House, 1970).

Catherine Stevenson recently completed a 14-month project with Nelson Ball to photograph and document Nelson’s home, the one he shared with his wife, artist Barbara Caruso, from 1985-2009. Nelson Ball still lives in the building, a four-story office building in Paris, Ontario that the two converted into a living space, bookstore, and art studio.

Barbara Caruso’s journals, published in two volumes by Mercury Press (“A Painter’s Journey”), a book of her essays (“Wording the Silent Art”) also published by Mercury, and an issue of Open Letter dedicated to her work (edited by bpNichol).

Titled “Nelson Ball & Barbara Caruso / Home Project / A Photo Documentary,” the film is beautifully paced, with Nelson’s text (including some poems) interspersed between Catherine’s photographs of each part of the building.

Nelson Ball books on my shelves.

It is an amazing record of a space shared by two wonderful artists, writers, booksellers, and partners. It is well worth your time. Please watch it:

Nelson also recently published an excellent new trade collection, Some Mornings, through Mansfield Press. Go buy it!