Terra Incognita
This artwork brings flora and fauna imagery inside Ocean Park Library and encourages visitors to reflect with a W.B. Yeats quote outside.
Artist: Gwen Curry
Location: Ocean Park Library (12854 17 Avenue)
Category: Civic collection
Year: 2001
About Terra Incognita
Terra Incognita links the Ocean Park Library with its garden, bringing the garden inside and the library outside. The classical interior architecture of the building lends itself well to the large, clear panels inscribed with flora and fauna on either side of curving windows high above the patrons. The panels have an antiquated style much like old-world etchings with their black and white maps, hawk image, and botanical drawings. The title, Terra Incognita or “earth in disguise”, directs the patrons to the uncharted world of books available within.
On the exterior wall facing the garden, delicate script lettering above the windows reads, “Take down this book, and slowly read,” a quote from “When You are Old” by the British poet William Butler Yeats. The words invite visitors to a time of reflection and repose.
More on Terra Incognita
About the Artist
Victoria-born Gwen Curry graduated with a BFA from the University of Victoria in 1974 and completed a Master of Fine Arts Degree at Arizona State University in 1978. Her work has been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions both nationally as well as internationally.
As an artist, Curry sees her role as a witness to the myriad of species that have inhabited the earth. She has focused on identifying and recording the scientific names of plants and animals in North America since the early 1990s.