2015 Doug Wright Spotlight Award Nomination
Ignatz Award Nomination for Outstanding Graphic Novel
An American artist witnesses the Quebec spring 2012 student strike on the streets of Montreal. The brutal police response and their violent tactics trigger an exploration of urban planning and its hidden connections to military strategies. Marshal Bugeaud’s urban warfare tactics in Algeria, Haussmann’s plan for Paris, planning and repression in the New World; theory and personal experience collide into an ambitious and poetic cartoon memoir.
Sophie Yanow was born north of San Francisco in 1987. In 2011 she moved to Montreal, and with the Colosse collective published In Situ, her acclaimed autobiographical comics series. She was an invited artist- researcher for the Canadian Center for Architecture’s C for Condo” workshop, and her work has been exhibited throughout the US and Canada. She lives in Montreal.
Trade Review
2015 Doug Wright Spotlight Award Nomination Ignatz award Nomination for Outstanding Graphic Novel "With deft sketches and minimal text, she shows how the streets of a city can simultaneously foster and crush social change, and how urban humans cling to personal freedom in an increasingly monitored world."--Sarah Goodyear, The Atlantic Cities "Engaging and informative, the book covers a surprisingly broad range of subjects given its brevity. The black-and-white artwork may appear simple but each illustration conveys a wealth of emotional detail, from demonstrations to Yanow's stripped-down view of herself. The book's quiet deliberation becomes more impressive with each read; Yanow is an author/illustrator to watch."--Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) "A fascinating meeting of urban design, activism and theory of the control of the masses."--Julien Morissette, Radio-Canada/CBC "Sophie Yanow's War of Streets and Houses pushes the boundaries of what a graphic novel can be by using comics to create an academic treatise. [...] Yanow's work follows in the footsteps of Situationists who explored how the politics of the layout of cities affect the people who live there."--Lambda Literary "Her rendering choices are a big key as to why the comic succeeds. She has the ability to flip from near-abstraction to a more naturalistic style, depending on the setting. [...] despite the sketchiness of her line, one never feels cheated in terms of visual impact. Indeed, the abstractness of her line combined with the artificial solidity of the zip-a-tone gives the protest scenes a strange quality that would be difficult to capture in a more naturalistic style."--Rob Clough, The Comics Journal Praise for In Situ: "Short little bursts of focused energy. Great stuff."--Frank Santoro, Pompeii "This is a beautiful first major work by an artist who is quite clearly concerned about how she affects the world, in terms of both art and politics."--Rob Clough, High-Low Comics
