The body in question?

A bold proposal that questions the representation of the body

A group exhibition curated by Professor Norman Cornett. Through photographic, pictorial, and performance works, international artists explore the beauty, vulnerability, and diversity of non-standard bodies. An invitation to celebrate the plurality of identities and rethink our view of the body.

Professor Cornett's interview at CIBL on July 31, 2025

A group exhibition bringing together international artists from diverse backgrounds under the direction of Professor Norman Cornett. This bold proposal questions the representation of the body through works where light reveals vulnerability, strength, and the plurality of identities. Between photography, painting, and captured gestures, the artists celebrate the singular beauty of bodies on the margins of norms. An invitation to rethink our perspective, to embrace diversity, and to celebrate the human in all its presence, its flesh, and its truth.

The exhibition "The Body in Question?" is privileged to count two eminent figures from Montreal's cultural landscape as honorary co-presidents: Dorothy W. Williams and H. Nigel Thomas. Their presence embodies the values of diversity, transmission, and openness that run through this project.

Dorothy W. Williams is a historian, researcher, and educator. A specialist in Black history in Quebec, she has dedicated her career to documenting the Afro-descendant presence in Montreal and across Canada. Her seminal works, Blacks in Montreal 1628–1986 and The Road to Now, have helped uncover an often-hidden memory. By founding The ABC's of Canadian Black History, she opened up an essential educational space where history becomes a tool for recognition and transformation. Her rigorous and committed voice resonates with the aim of this exhibition: to restore the body's historical, political, and emotional significance.

H. Nigel Thomas, novelist, poet, and essayist, is one of the major figures in contemporary Quebec English literature. Author of novels such as Spirits in the Dark and No Safeguards, his works explore questions of identity, immigration, homosexuality, language, and race with rare psychological finesse. His commitment to teaching and his literary contributions have made him a key voice of the Black and LGBTQ+ diasporas in Canada.

As Honorary Co-Presidents, Dorothy W. Williams and H. Nigel Thomas embody a living memory, a free voice, and a resolutely inclusive vision. Their support gives "The Body in Question?" a broader resonance, rooted in the struggles for recognition, justice, and the beauty of plural identities.

Professor Norman Cornett, Exhibition Curator

An iconoclastic thinker, an extraordinary educator, and a bridge between artistic, cultural, and spiritual worlds, Professor Norman Cornett is renowned for his innovative pedagogical approach, which he calls "dialogic." A historian of ideas, theologian, and specialist in intercultural relations, he taught at McGill University for more than two decades, shaping generations of critical thinkers.

His method, based on creative dialogue, has found particular resonance in the arts community, where he serves as an exhibition curator, cultural advisor, and moderator of public meetings. He regularly collaborates with visual artists, writers, musicians, and thinkers engaged in transdisciplinary approaches.

For the exhibition "The Body in Question?", Norman Cornett has created a bold and profoundly humanist curatorial approach. His selection of works, at the intersection of photography, painting, and social engagement, reflects his desire to create a space where bodies express themselves in their plural truth. By giving voice to the fluidity of identities, embodied memory, and the aesthetic tensions of the present, he makes this exhibition a true space for dialogue, true to his conviction that "art is a bridge between consciousnesses."