CAG Reads

We are pleased to announce our latest installment of CAG Reads, a book club where artists invite us to read alongside them. Each month an artist proposes a text for our collective reading pleasure, culminating in a virtual hangout where the artist leads a wide-ranging discussion grounded in their chosen reading material.

This January, CAG Reads will be hosted by Patrick Cruz. Patrick Cruz is a Filipino-Canadian artist based in Quezon City, Philippines and Vancouver, BC as an uninvited guest on the land of the Coast Salish peoples—Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish, Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) and xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations. Cruz studied Painting at the University of the Philippines and received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from Emily Carr University of Art + Design, a certificate in clownology, and a Master of Fine Arts at the University of Guelph. His intuitive inquiry is informed by his interest in cultural hybridity, the project of decolonization, and the paradoxical effects of globalization. Most Recently, Cruz’s work has taken form in playful configurations manifesting in various activities such as cooking, curating, trading, and freestyle rapping.

Patrick has chosen Book 1 (pages 24-225) of the fantasy fiction novel A Dweller on Two Planets by Phylos the Thibetan (also known as Frederick Spencer Oliver). Published in 1905, the novel portrays the social, technological, and religious structures that shape society in the lost city of Atlantis. Presented as a true account channelled by the spirit Phylos the Thibetan, A Dweller on Two Planets is acknowledged as source material for many new age belief systems, and has been highly influential as an early work of occult science fiction.

Getting the texts

To access a digital copy of Book 1 of A Dweller on Two Planets please follow this link. Copies of the full text can be ordered from Banyen Books here in Vancouver, but keep in mind that shipping may take 2-3 weeks!