no monetary value

ɴᴏ ᴍᴏɴᴇᴛᴀʀʏ ᴠᴀʟᴜᴇ
Chris Dufour
ᴡᴇᴇᴅ ᴘᴏᴇᴛɪᴄꜱ
poems by Alana Friend Lettner
𝕡𝕦𝕓𝕝𝕚𝕔𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟 (2025)

ᴡʀɪᴛɪɴɢꜱ ᴏꜰ ɴᴏ ᴍᴏɴᴇᴛᴀʀʏ ᴠᴀʟᴜᴇ, ᴛʜᴇ ᴘᴀꜱꜱɪɴɢ ᴏꜰ ᴘɪɢᴍᴇɴᴛꜱ, ᴡᴇᴇᴅ ᴘᴏᴇᴛɪᴄꜱ, ᴜɴᴇᴀʀᴛʜᴇᴅ ᴏᴄʜʀᴇꜱ, ᴛᴇᴛʜᴇʀᴇᴅ Qᴜɪʟᴛꜱ

To commemorate Chris Dufour’s summer 2024 residency and practice, Oxygen Art Centre is delighted to share a special publication by the artist entitled “no monetary value” featuring a series of poems responding to Dufour’s work by Alana Friend Lettner entitled “weed poetics” (2025).

Created by the artist following their residency, the catalogue is composed of little remnants of the ecologies imbedded throughout–pigments, inks, ochres, plants, paper.

The poems are printed with both goldenrod mineral pigment harvested in Montreal along the train tracks, presumed to be contaminated with heavy metals and hydrocarbons, and with a red ochre harvested from a deforested cut block on Cheslatta territory that was also burned in 2023 in the Lucas Lake wildfire.

The screen printed images embed more cut block ochres and wildfire charcoal from the same Lucas Lake wildfire. The textile placed on the covering envelope is naturally dyed with fireweed from outside of Nelson during Dufour’s residency this summer.

“no monetary value” is a limited series artist book publication, now available at Oxygen or for purchase (mail).

This project is generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, the British Columbia Arts Council, and the Regional District of the Central Kootenay ReDi program.

Chris Dufour (they/them) is an interdisciplinary social practice artist working between Kanien’kehá:ka and Lekwungen territory. Chris uses mediums of plants, gardening, ecological wandering, textiles, quilting, installation, darkroom manipulation, leather tanning, and sculpture to process questions of how do we cultivate a sense of belonging within and among systemic power dynamics? How do we push against empire while cultivating resilient communities and cultures of care? What practices of living can we recuperate, develop, and employ within contemporary cultures of crisis?

Of Irish and Quebecois heritage, Chris grew up outside of Kjipuktuk (so called Halifax, Nova Scotia) and has spent the last 8 years working and living across many territories on Turtle Island. After attending the Yukon School of Visual Arts, Chris took on a practice of grassroots learning that brought them to social practice, permaculture, soil ecology, and accessible community-based education. Throughout, Chris values projects which seek to utilize material practices as a facilitator, to process connections and relationships to ecologies, modalities of care, alternative futures, and ruminations about world building.

Alana Friend Lettner (she/her) is a writer living on the unceded traditional territory of the K’ómoks First Nation. She holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Victoria as well as a BA honours in English and creative writing from Concordia University. She has worked as a seasonal tree planter for six years, mostly in the Bulkley-Nechako region.