De Bestiis Insularum (Of the Beasts of the Islands)

JULY 2023
De Bestiis Insularum (Of the Beasts of the Islands)
Curated by Dr. Sandra Talbot, Dr. Joe Cook, and Dr. Natalie Dawson


De Bestiis Insularum (Of the Beasts of the Islands) explores the role and impacts of colonial expansion on mammalian and other species occupying islands along the North Pacific Coast. Those impacts first emerged as a consequence of the Bering Expedition and the “discovery” of Alaska by Russia in 1741-1742. The exhibition’s title is in reference to the treatise De Bestiis Marinas (Of the Beasts of the Sea) written by the Bering Expedition’s naturalist Georg Wilhelm Steller while the Expedition was shipwrecked on what became the Bering Island in the Commander Island group in the Russian portion of the Aleutian Archipelago. Although Steller’s contribution to the study of diverse species occupying these remote islands is widely admired by scientists working in Alaskan locales and elsewhere, the consequences of the Expedition on island ecosystems via, for example, overharvest of mammalian species and introduction of exotic mammals, was and remains devastating. Subsequent negative consequences of colonial expansion after the ‘discovery’ of the Aleutian Islands and islands to the east (e.g., Alexander Archipelago) desolated Indigenous people and the non-human species they depended on.  This pattern, which started in the Aleutian Islands in the west, has repeated across numerous islands in the Pacific Northwest, including the Kodiak Island and Alexander Archipelagos in Alaska, the Haida Gwaii Archipelago of British Columbia, the San Juan Archipelago in Washington and islands further south.

This exhibition, sponsored by the Far Northwestern Institute of Art and Science (FNIAS), includes work from artists living in Alaska, British Columbia, and Washington State. Many of these artists are also trained as scientists and have conducted research on North Pacific Islands or on the species living there. Other artists have considerable experience exploring various North Pacific environmental issues in their art and writing. The FNIAS believes that the exchange of information between art and science is critical for generating new knowledge and deepening an understanding of our world, and as such, this exhibition seeks to entice audiences to explore the amazing world of island mammals (and ‘mammal adjacent species’ such as prey, parasites and pathogens) through art.

De Bestiis Insularum (Of the Beasts of the Islands) handout

Virtual Exhibition Tour