Leonard Cohen’s life story carved in wood
MONTREAL, Que. — It has become something of a lateautumn Montreal tradition, no less moving for its low-key vibe and humble, neighbourhood scale. At various times on Nov. 7, people — some in small groups, others alone — will pause in front of Leonard Cohen’s house near the Main to pay respect to the city’s great poet and singer on the anniversary of his death.
The turnout this year was expected to be smaller, but that’s down to the obvious public health reasons and not because interest in Cohen has waned; if anything, four years after his passing, his presence is stronger than ever. For a case in point, consider George A. Walker’s “Leonard Cohen: A Woodcut Biography” released through Firefly Books. An adapted and expanded version of a book first published in a limited edition to mark Cohen’s 80th birthday in 2014, the new book takes the Cohen story all the way to the end, utilizing 82 wood-engraved images and minimal captions to create an engrossing work that is, in the author’s apt words,“something more akin to a silent film than to a structured textual narrative.”
Walker was drawn to the ancient woodcut form from an early age. “I was struck by the expressive power of it,” said the 60-year-old artist and teacher from his home in Toronto. “The raw edge, the black-andwhite starkness, really intrigued me. There’s something about carving into organic material that’s very attractive.”
Typically using small blocks of Canadian maple, Walker engraves using tools finer and more exacting than the gouges commonly associated with woodcutting. It’s a method that allows for greater control and more detail, but it’s labour-intensive: all told, the new book took 2 ½ years to finish.
“That’s a lot of work,” Walker said. “But when you love to do something, it’s a different type of work. It’s meditative; it’s immersive. I was in the zone.”
Walker’s immersion was no doubt aided by his high regard for his subject. He first came to Cohen’s work not via one of the classic early albums, but as a reader: the novel “Beautiful Losers” and poetry collection “The Spice-Box of Earth” grabbed his imagination.
“I always considered Cohen a writer first,” he said. “He came to music as a vehicle to transport his love of poetry. I thought he got cheated out of the (Nobel) prize that Bob Dylan got for his lyrics.”
The book tells Cohen’s story in images ranging from his Westmount childhood to his late-life victory lap, incorporating family members, lovers, media figures whose paths he crossed (Adrienne Clarkson, Pierre Berton), poets who mentored and influenced him (Louis Dudek, Irving Layton, Federico Garcia Lorca, Constantine Cavafy) and fellow musicians.
While some images are based identifiably on existing photographs (“Some photos are so iconic you can’t avoid them, they speak so much to Cohen’s life”), Walker also gives himself licence to go beyond the strictly historical. Cohen and Jimi Hendrix met, but as far as anyone knows were never photographed together; likewise, the stories of Phil Spector pulling a gun on Cohen in the studio during the recording of “Death of a Ladies’ Man” are legendary but undocumented. Walker depicts these moments anyway — and others involving Janis Joplin, Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, Joni Mitchell and more — in a way that respects history without being entirely beholden to it.