Anatomical images of the human body recur in this retrospective of Doug Biden's prints and drawings. Because the artist died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 50, it's easy to read a preoccupation with illness, medicine, and mortality into his art. Yet most of the work here predates Biden's 2005 diagnosis. It's as if his imagery were somehow prescient, as if his interest in social and biological systems and body politics anticipated his physical struggle and early end. An accomplished and respected printmaker, Biden exhibited his art nationally and internationally.
Catalogue of an exhibition held at the Burnaby Art Gallery, Burnaby, B.C., Sept. 11-Oct. 21, 2007.