The Voluptuous Gardener: The Collected Art and Writing of Joe Rosenblatt, 1973-1996

Applauded as a witty and eccentric pioneer of Canadian poetry, Joe Rosenblatt is also a talented visual artist. Though several books have included Rosenblatt’s black and white sketches to supplement his poetry, The Voluptuous Gardener is the first book to celebrate Joe Rosenblatt as an artist in his own right. The voluptuous gardener may well be a gardener in Eden, surrounded by the pleasure and innocence of a new world, but also dangerous temptation. The garden is populated with gentle beasts and the beast within us, sleepy cats and the brutal world of insects. An introduction by Michael Bell outlines the evolution of Rosenblatt’s artwork, highlighting the archetypal nature of his images and the uneasy mixture of innocence and perversity.