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For immediate release Contact: Joanna Hurley
Coming in October, 2021: A provocative and groundbreaking new book on
Audubon, the man and his times, with original artwork revealing changes
over nearly two centuries in the landscapes he traveled—
Audubon, the man and his times, with original artwork revealing changes
over nearly two centuries in the landscapes he traveled—
A COUNTRY NO MORE: Rediscovering the Landscapes
of John James Audubon
by Krista Elrick, with an introduction by James David Moran, essays by
Gregory Nobles and Mary Anne Redding, and a conversation with the
author by Joanna Hurley & Mary Anne Redding
More than two dozen books have been published about John James Audubon and his
life and work since his death in 1851, including many versions of his own hugely
popular Birds of America. When photographer Krista Elrick wanted to learn more about
the man behind the art, and what had happened to the birds, animals, communities,
and landscapes he traveled through, she set out, vintage Hasselblad camera in hand, to
retrace his journeys. Ten years later, she ended her trip at his gravesite at Trinity
Cemetery in New York City, after traveling more than 45,000 miles through
Pennsylvania, Kentucky, the Carolinas, Mississippi, Louisiana and Florida, Missouri,
Montana, and the Dakotas.
Much to her surprise, she found the lushly forested watersheds and waterways
that Audubon had passionately described in his journals vastly altered with many of
the bird species extinct and their supporting habitat all but disappeared. Industrial
buildings, parking lots, and strip malls had overtaken the natural world and once-rich
agricultural lands. In the South and Florida, many of the Indigenous peoples also were
gone, having been relocated by the federal government to territories west of the
Mississippi.
As curator Liz Allen of Northlight Gallery in Tempe, Arizona, says of the project,
“[It provides] evidence [of] a dynamic history that engaged European settlers like Audubon,
Africans brought to the New World as slaves, and Native Americans. Often in conflict and
always for/against the natural bounty. As their descendants we . . . can look back with an
awareness that recognizes the varied perspectives; and redefine overlapping histories. Not as
divergent or disparate but, as American and contributing to our strength and continuing
struggles for equity and reconciliation.”
Wishing to pay homage to what had been lost, Elrick made dozens of black-andwhite
images of the country she traveled through as it looks now, some 170 years later.
Then, using resources she found in the archives at the American Antiquarian Society,
New York Historical Society and other institutions, she created color collages using
period maps and banknotes and pieces of Audubon’s own artworks to help us better
understand the dramatic changes in the economies and environments of the areas over
time.
Poring over Audubon’s voluminous journals, and many of the books on him, she
also discovered—as his biographers have—that the man was something of an enigma, a
fabulist who told enchanting yet often conflicting stories about his own history and
identity and what he saw in the field. The result is a fascinating volume that gives us a
fresh and provocative perspective not only on the changing American landscape, but on
Audubon himself, his times, and his enduring legacy.
Krista Elrick has been an exhibiting artist and activist for more than thirty-five years.
She has worked with scientists and Indigenous peoples throughout her career, all of
whom have helped her to reframe and refine her ideas about environmental and
cultural change. Other books she has contributed images to include Imagine a City that
Remembers: The Albuquerque Rephotographic Project, by Anthony Anella and Mark Childs
(University of New Mexico Press, 2018), Grasslands / Separating Species, with
photographs by Michael Berman, Dana Fritz, David Taylor, and Jo Whaley, and essays
by William deBuys, Mary Anne Redding, and Rebecca Solnit (Radius Books 2009). She
lives and works in Santa Fe, New Mexico. A Country No More is her first solo book.
Gregory Nobles is Professor of History Emeritus at the Georgia Institute of Technology,
where he spent thirty-three years as a faculty member and administrator. His previous
books include John James Audubon: The Nature of the American Woodsman (University of
Pennsylvania Press, 2017), Whose American Revolution Was It? Historians Interpret the
Founding, with Alfred F. Young (New York University Press, 2011), and American
Frontiers: Cultural Encounters and Continental Conquest (Hill and Wang, 1998).
Mary Anne Redding has more than thirty-five years’ experience as a curator, archivist,
librarian, educator, arts administrator, and writer. Formerly the chief curator of the
Turchin Center for the Visual Arts at Appalachian State University in Boone, North
Carolina, and curator for the Marion Center of Photographic Arts and chair of the
photography department at the Santa Fe University of Art and Design.
Availability Date: August 2021
Publication Date: October 2021
Hardcover: ISBN: 978-1938086809 256 pages
With 75 black &white images and collages and 14 color collages by the Author,
14 artworks by Audubon, 8 period maps
Published by George F. Thompson Publishing www.gftbooks.com
With distribution by Casemate/IPM Books www.casemateipm.com
Available from your favorite bookseller or directly from the publisher or distributor