A cold case from 1917, the tragic cost of the events of 9/11, and the rise and fall of a media baron. These are the themes as imagined by George Walker in his three wordless contemporary narratives told in wood engravings.
The Mysterious Death of Tom Thomson Thomson was a young Canadian artist of great promise. When his body was discovered in a lake in Algonquin Park in July 1917, Thomson had been missing for eight days. Although the official cause of death was accidental drowning, the corpse had fishing line wrapped around a leg and the head showed evidence of trauma. ‘The Mysterious Death of Tom Thomson’ re-imagines in some 100 wood engravings the events leading up to Thomson’s tragic death and the discovery of his body.
Book of Hours ‘Book of Hours: A Wordless Novel Told in 99 Wood Engravings’ is a sequence of visual narratives chronicling the 24-hour period leading up to the attacks on the World Trade Center. The book charts the imagined lives of people who worked in the twin towers. Walker imbues his book with the spectre of horror that the reader knows will shatter the lives of those involved and forever alter the course of world events.
Conrad Black Walker’s ‘Conrad Black’ imagines the life of this notorious, intellectually complex and fascinating business figure. Black’s life is relayed in a sequence of events and episodes in no discernible pattern. Initial impulses set in motion in the early years tumble forward through the decades, culminating in downfall and catharsis.

AUTHOR: George A. Walker holds a master’s degree in communication and culture from Ryerson and York University. He was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 2002 in recognition of his achievements in Canadian Book Arts. He is an associate professor at the Ontario College of Art and Design University. Walker is the author of ‘The Woodcut Artists’ Handbook’ and is recognised for his art history book on wordless novels, ‘Graphic Witness’. He lives and works in Toronto.

Woodcut illustrations