Josh Gabert-Doyon

W.W.A.S. is a provisional research collective assembled by 221A to study the historic transformations of Vancouver’s storied Woodward’s building. Since September 2017, the collective (Brit Bachmann, Gabi Dao, Josh Gabert-Doyon, and Byron Peters) has occupied Pollyanna 圖書館 Library to plan and carry out an investigation into Woodward’s as an epicentre of local class struggle.

W.W.A.S. has charted the building’s various articulations over the past century in order to grasp Woodward’s as a historical constellation; that is, as a tangle of intertwined narratives through which to comprehend the distinct co-development of urbanism and capitalism in Vancouver. Beginning with accounts of the building’s origins in 1903 as a ‘frontier’ department store, the collective’s research has traced the history of Woodward’s—not simply as an architectural case study, but as a contradictory cluster of actants, desires, and ideologies—by drawing connections between fragments of civic archives, activist histories, commercial ephemera, redacted emails, quaint Canadiana, and nostalgic Facebook groups. W.W.A.S. understands this ‘prehistory’ as a force that haunts Woodward’s controversial ‘present history’ of the last two decades: its acquisition, demolition, and reconstruction as a ‘social-mix’ condo-art megaplex by Westbank Corp, a model now archetypal of private-public redevelopment schemes.

The nature of the collective’s findings—uncovering an ulterior history of Woodward’s—has led its activity out of the Pollyanna Library stacks and into unfamiliar territories in purpose and method. In coming to the understanding of present-day Woodward’s as an engine of ‘art washing’, wherein the ongoing, brutal redevelopment of Vancouver’s ‘urban frontier’ is sold as a form of cultural production (a logic that has reached its apotheosis in Westbank Corp’s insipid Fight for Beauty rebranding spectacle), the collective was moved to refocus its energies towards not only understanding the politics of Woodward’s, but intervening in it. In short; what arose was an ethics of research. Consequently, W.W.A.S. has taken on a program of ‘action-research’, where knowledge production meets the political through tactics of insurgent publishing, journalistic provocation, and building living solidarities. On November 26 2017 W.W.A.S presented a midterm report of its research and activities at the Vancouver Tenants Union’s First Annual Convention.

On February 2018, W.W.A.S. hosted and moderated BITE THE HAND THAT FEEDS: FORUM ON ART AND DEVELOPER MONEY at Pollyanna 圖書館 Library. The forum invited artists to participate community dialogue on artwashing — the co-option of art workers and institutions by real estate in Vancouver. BITE THE HAND THAT FEEDS… opened a space for artists who are either new to or already committed to fighting for housing justice to ask questions, share experiences, and strategize together to win a better collective life for all.

Collection 05: Woodward’s Amateur Historical Society Archives

33 items

Media link	Name	Call No.	Format	Produced by	Material	Selected by	Collection
	Body Heat: The Story of the Woodward’s Redevelopment	WWAS 001		Edited by Robert Enright	Print	W.W.A.S.	05
	Facing the Music: Documenting Walt Disney Concert Hall and the Redevelopment of Downtown Los Angeles	WWAS 002		Allan Sekula	Print	W.W.A.S.	05
	Vancouver Ltd.	WWAS 003		Donald Gutstein	Print	Kay Higgins	05
	Citizen City: Vancouver’s Henriquez Partners Challenges Architects to Engage in Partnerships that Advance Cultural Sustainability	WWAS 004		Marya Cotten Gould, Gregory Henriquez, Robert Enright	Print	W.W.A.S.	05
	West Coast Line 41 – 37/ 2-3: Woodsquat	WWAS 005		Edited by Aaron Vidaver	Print	W.W.A.S.	05
	Carnegie Newsletters, a selection of issues from 1992-2017	WWAS 006 REF		Carnegie Community Centre	Print	W.W.A.S.	05
	Access All Areas: Conversations on Engaged Arts	WWAS 007		Visible Arts Society, Edited by Tania Willard	Print	W.W.A.S.	05
	Every Building On 100 West Hastings	WWAS 008		Stan Douglas	Print	W.W.A.S.	05
	-Guide to Documents -4 folders VPD FOI -Newsletter scanned	WWAS 009 REF		Aaron Vidaver, Friend’s of the Woodward’s Squat Archive	DVD	Aaron Vidaver, Friend’s of the Woodward’s Squat Archive	05
	The Beat of Frances Street	WWAS 010 REF		Eleven Foot Productions	DVD	Aaron Vidaver, Friend’s of the Woodward’s Squat Archive	05
	In Search of Present Tense: Art in the Domain of Monopoly-Finance	WWAS 011		Andrew Witt & Graeme Fisher	Print	W.W.A.S.	05
	AstroTurf	WWAS 012 REF		Byron Peters	Synthetic Fibers	W.W.A.S.	05
	BEAUTY IS CLASS WAR	WWAS 013 REF		W.W.A.S.	Print, Foamcore	W.W.A.S.	05
	WESTBANK IS EVIL	WWAS 014 REF		W.W.A.S.	Print, Foamcore	W.W.A.S.	05
	DISPLACEMENT IS NOT BEAUTY	WWAS 015 REF		W.W.A.S.	Print, Foamcore	W.W.A.S.	05
	HUCKSTERS	WWAS 016 REF		W.W.A.S.	Print, Foamcore, Wood	W.W.A.S.	05
	VIOLENCE MASQUERADING AS BENEVOLENCE	WWAS 017 REF		W.W.A.S.	Print, Foamcore, Wood	W.W.A.S.	05
	WHEN DID WE SAY YES TO SURVIVAL BEING DISCARDED DELETED DEMEANED?	WWAS 018 REF		W.W.A.S.	Print, Foamcore	W.W.A.S.	05
	Alone and Cold: The Davies Commission – Inquiry into the death of Frank Paul	WWAS 019		The William H. Davies, Q.C., Commission	Print	W.W.A.S.	05
	Woodsquat Digest	WWAS 020		W.W.A.S.	Print	W.W.A.S.	05
	Department Store Nostalgia And Bankruptcy	WWAS 021 REF		W.W.A.S.	Print	W.W.A.S.	05
	Fama Push And Pull	WWAS 022 REF		W.W.A.S.	Print	W.W.A.S.	05
	Lasting Impact And FFB	WWAS 023 REF		W.W.A.S.	Print	W.W.A.S.	05
	Westbank And Social Mix	WWAS 024 REF		W.W.A.S.	Print	W.W.A.S.	05
	Displacement Is Not Beauty Banner	WWAS 025 REF		Beverly Ho, W.W.A.S. Photo by Sungpil Yoon	Canvas	W.W.A.S.	05
	British Law and Arctic Men: The Celebrated 1917 Murder Trials of Sinnisiak and Uluksuk, First Inuit Tried Under White Man’s Law	WWAS 026 REF		R.G. Moyles	Print	Jakob Knudsen	05
	The New Reality: The Politics of Restraint in British Columbia	WWAS 027		Edited by Warren Magnusson, William K. Carroll, Charles Doyle, Monika Langer, R.B.J. Walker	Print	Jakob Knudsen	05
	Prison Exposures: First Photographs of Life Inside Prison by a Convict	WWAS 028 REF		Robert Neese	Print	Jakob Knudsen	05
	Artropolis 93: Public Art and Art About Public Issues	WWAS 029		Edited by Sue Kelly, Lisa Langford, Francesca Lund, Ann Rosenberg	Print	Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery	05
	W.W.A.S. at Housing Justice Fair, Vancouver Tenant’s Union first AGM + Convention	WWAS 030 REF		Sungpil Yoon	Polaroid	W.W.A.S.	05
	The Volcano: Issue 8 – Spring 2017	WWAS 031		The Volcano Editorial Collective (Dave Diewert, Harold Lavender, Herb Varley, Ivan Drury, Jean Swanson, Natalie Knight, Sarah Sheridan, Shannon Bundock)	Print	W.W.A.S.	05
	Vancouver Metro: Monday, March 12, 2018	WWAS 032		Vancouver Metro	Print	W.W.A.S.	05
	Woodsquat	WWAS 033 REF		W.W.A.S.	Print	W.W.A.S.	05
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W.W.A.S. is assembled by Notes on Permanent Education (N.O.P.E. 2017), a collective research program convened by 221A Librarian Vincent Tao. N.O.P.E. 2017 inaugurates the organization’s new fellowship model and its primary support, Pollyanna Library.