Spirit of The Land – Johanna Rowe – PRE ORDER

Spirit of the Land – Wawa’s A.Y. Jackson Story is a beautifully researched and deeply personal tribute to one of Canada’s most iconic painters and the extraordinary northern landscape that shaped his artistic vision. Written by Johanna Rowe, this book transports readers to the remote shores of Lake Superior, where Group of Seven founding member A.Y. Jackson spent years exploring, sketching, and capturing the untamed beauty of Algoma Country.

Blending history, biography, adventure, and cultural storytelling, Rowe uncovers Jackson’s long relationship with the Ross family and their secluded “Ross-Ay” cabin on Michipicoten Bay. Through firsthand accounts, memoir excerpts, archival photographs, letters, and detailed research, readers follow Jackson’s journeys along the eastern Superior shoreline between Batchawana Bay and Pukaskwa during the 1950s and 1960s.

More than an art history book, Spirit of the Land is a celebration of the Canadian wilderness itself — the windswept beaches, towering cliffs, boreal forests, hidden harbours, and sacred Indigenous landscapes that inspired generations of artists and explorers. Rowe also documents her own modern-day expeditions retracing Jackson’s footsteps, reconnecting present-day readers with the same vistas and “spirit of the land” that captivated the Group of Seven over a century ago.

Rich with nostalgia, Canadian history, and reverence for the natural world, this book will appeal to lovers of Canadian art, Northern Ontario history, wilderness exploration, and the enduring legacy of the Group of Seven.