Canadian Whole Earth Almanac (complete run)

Ken Coupland

£500.00

Edition : First / Toronto / Canadian Whole Earth Research Foundation (Coach House Press) / 1972 / Softcover. / VG+
8vo, 5 volumes, ca 180pp each, last issue 64pp. Printed wrappers. Text in English. Printed in Canada on Canadian Paper by Mindless Acid FreaKs.

Based at the legendary Rochdale College on Bloor, Coupland devised his short‐lived countercultural resource as a Canada specific variant of the WEC, and focused each issue on a theme- Food, Shelter, Industry, and Healing. It actually makes the almanac much tighter and more in depth, rather than a directory it acts as themed book, with a lot of articles and instructions as well as directories of resources. “Coupland was an integral member of both the artist-run and independent publishing milieu in Toronto during the 1960s and 1970s. In addition to his duties with the Almanac, he designed books for Coach House Press and was an early collaborator with the artists’ collective General Idea. A primary locus of the Almanac’s content and community was the experimental free‐school, Rochdale College, where the Almanac’s office resided alongside scores of other self‐organized services and initiatives. Leaving Toronto in the early‐1970s for San Francisco, Coupland continued his relationship with the increasingly diasporic Canadian scene, engaging in the expansive mail‐art network that at once articulated and united its community and members.”

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