Toilet Paper Diary

See a digital presentation of Toliet Paper Diary in its entirety on Guy Laramée's website, here. Guy Laramée’s artistic practice revolves around his interest in the quest for both transcendence, and presence in the current moment. His oil paintings depict natural vistas, often lush or shrouded in fog, evocative yet without guise. Softly rendered, there is a distance between the viewer and his tranquil landscapes. The artist’s carved book sculptures are worlds unto themselves. Choosing books that may have become obsolete such as antique encyclopedias, Laramée creates highly detailed scenes of mountains, hillsides, lakes, and hidden doorways, all carved into the pages of the texts he begins with. Subtly painted, the sculptures look more like uncovered secret places than created moments. "This project was created almost exclusively with the medium of toilet paper. Produced between March 2020 and March 2021, in the city of Montreal, Québec, Canada, it is a pandemic diary, covering the per