In conjunction with the Media Transatlantic Conference at Irving K. Barber Learning Centre (April 8 – 10, 2010), the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery and Walter C. Koerner Library are pleased to exhibit two works, Fight Club (2005) and Less Than Zero (2005) by Vancouver author and artist Douglas Coupland. Coupland will talk about Marshall McLuhan on Thursday, April 8 at 5:15 pm in the Golden Jubilee Room. For conference information, visit www.mediatrans.ca.

Fight Club and Less Than Zero are part of series shown together as Lost and Gained in Translation, a body of work that is concerned with the intersection of language, books and visual culture in mass media. Part of Coupland’s process was to use a website search engine to translate texts out of and back into English. The results were photocopied onto every available colour of paper at a Kinko’s copy outlet and then arranged in large, text-based mosaics. Fight Club and Less Than Zero gestures toward both the mechanics and the outcomes of telling stories through a strong interest in design and typography.

This exhibition is a collaboration of the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery and the Walter C. Koerner Library at the University of British Columbia and is made possible by the generous support of the Audain Foundation. Art in the Library aims to open possibilities for interpretation and new perspectives on contemporary art by presenting art that challenges and questions our current perceptions.