Puzzling exhibition opens at Edmonton art gallery

Rebus feature English and French riddles made of pictures on ceramic plates. They are part of an exhibition at the Alberta Craft Discovery Gallery, which opened on April 12, 2025. (Galen McDougall/CTV News Edmonton)

An Alberta-based artist is serving up platefuls of puzzles at an Edmonton gallery.

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Rebus Plates for Our Times opened at the Alberta Craft Discovery Gallery gallery on Saturday.

The exhibition features collections of rebuses, riddles made up of pictures and symbols that make up a word, phrase or sentence.

For example, a picture of a lightbulb alongside a house would be a lighthouse.

A press release on the exhibition said rebuses printed on ceramic plates became popular in France in the 19th century, and often featured social and political themes.

The plates created by artist Mireille Perron are no different, featuring themes pulled from the Calgary flood and subsequent Alberta wildfires.

“I think that climate change is an emergency, but our understanding of it and our reaction to it is always necessarily slow, because it’s very complex,” Perron said.

“You’re never too sure if you’re deciphering the right sign and if you’re reacting well for the for the sign. So that was a little bit also the playful way of thinking about something that actually is not playful.”

Perron was born in Montréal, Québec, and the show features rebuses in both English and French.

They can take some time to figure out, but Perron said it’s worth the work.

“I just had my first two viewers who are actually the perfect viewers, who are actually taking a pen and paper and deciphering what it means,” Perron said.

“Because when you get to decipher one, you (are) always encouraged.”

The show will be on at the gallery until May 24.

For more information, visit the Alberta Craft Council website.