Trading on Art
University of British Columbia Press, forthcoming May 2025
Trading on Art: Cultural Diplomacy and Free Trade in North America is a call to attend to the power relationships that underpin art and its circulation. The book centres visual art as a mediating force, exploring how art is intertwined with the negotiation of free trade in North America in the late twentieth century.
The book plays particular attention to the use of art to forge ties between Canada and Mexico, as well as how art was mobilized to construct and circulate ideas about North American identity. Beyond demonstrating how exhibitions communicated government-supported narratives about North American economic integration, Trading on Art also reveals how art served as a venue for dissent about free trade.
Comprised of six chapters, an introduction and an epilogue, the book addresses developments from the 1980s through the first decade of the twenty-first century. Case studies include state-sponsored exhibitions that emerged in the wake of the North American Free Trade Agreement and functioned as overt envoys of cultural diplomacy. Through analysis of art, exhibitions, and museum initiatives, the book demonstrates art as a vital media in which free trade and ideas about North America were negotiated.
Reviews
“Smith brings the conversation about North American cultural integration into an entirely new realm. Trading on Art is a book that will be read not only in its time but for years to come.”—Melissa Aronczyk, professor of journalism and media studies, Rutgers University
“A tour de force of cultural analysis, Trading on Art will enrich the fields of Canadian studies, American studies, border studies, cultural studies, communications studies, and art history immensely.”—Gillian Roberts, professor of contemporary literature and culture, University of Nottingham
