Two influential Vancouver artists are the subjects of eye-pleasing recent releases from local galleries.

The Rennie Collection at Wing Sang has just put out Rodney Graham: Collected Works, a catalogue that commemorates the multivenue celebration of Rodney Graham's work that happened here in 2014. The Rennie gallery, as well as the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery at UBC and the Charles H. Scott Gallery at Emily Carr University of Art + Design, hosted exhibits for the retrospective.

What sets the linen-bound book apart is that its back cover serves as a sleeve for a 7-inch vinyl record with two musical tracks featuring Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon. It also boasts a scholarly essay by Mark Godfrey, senior curator of international art at Tate Modern; a "creative fiction" by novelist Susie Boyt; a music essay by author, music journalist, and Saint Etienne bandmember Bob Stanley; and, of course, dozens of full-page colour illustrations of Graham’s works over his wide range of media (light boxes, sculpture, film, and more).

An artist of the same era, with a similar penchant for humour, social commentary, and deconstructing photographic art, Neil Wedman has titled his linen-bound book Selected Monochromatic Paintings and Works on Paper after similarly named exhibits. It's published by the Charles H. Scott Gallery and ECU Press, in collaboration with Equinox Gallery.

Works on view include old newspapers rendered meticulously in labour-intensive pencil and India ink; shadowy underwater volcanoes captured in conte crayon; and studies of UFOs hovering above landscapes in both those media.

 The inside front and back covers feature Wedman's unmissable Rock and Roll Work Bench, a pigment print on photo rag paper that is sourced from an actual tabletop used in an old East Van high-school shop class. The years' worth of carved marks that cover the surface ("LED ZEP", "1989", "SEX DRUGS ROCK 'n' ROLL") bring back instant memories to anyone who's ever sat bored through class.  

Local interdisciplinary artist, writer, and curator Kathy Slade, musician and sound-and-video artist Brady Cranfield, and others provide insights through essays.