The Art Gallery of Sudbury is pleased to present an exhibition of photographic work entitled Jim<> by John Armstrong and Paul Collins. Armstrong working in his native Canada and Collins in France ­ where he has lived for the past 20 years ­ their series of 98 paired photographs explores the blurred edges of North American and European culture, of the familiar and the exotic, of shared and individual experiences. The title Jim<>, pronounced in a bilingual, "Jim, that way, par là", references the graffiti scratched into the gravestones of Père-Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, pointing the way to Jim Morrison's tomb. This project with its accompanying bookwork is the culmination of a nearly 30-year creative collaboration between the two artists.

Armstrong and Collins developed a list of 49 words that would become the subjects of this series of photographs that bring together two points of view of the same theme. The subjects include a diversity of motifs like air vents, flowers, typography, art history, public sculpture, travel advertisements, musical instruments or other artists. The paired images playfully act as indicators of a specific moment, place, culture or author. The viewer is drawn into a guessing game with attempts to identify the settings or location: Canada or France? Paris or Toronto?

The bookwork published by the Art Gallery of Sudbury and Coach House Press (Toronto) presents duotones of the exhibition's 98 paired images followed by a section of short prose and poetic responses, written by the artists in both English and French. Following its presentation at the Art Gallery of Sudbury (Ontario, Canada) Jim<> travels to Artothèque de Caen (France) and the Kunsthalle Fishmacht (Erfurt, Germany).