It might seem unrealistic to expect your audience to read through eight weighty volumes of text, but I dare say Rob Kovitz's Ice Fishing in Gimli (a novel) has nothing to do with anything realistic, existing or probable. It also has little to do with ice fishing or Gimli.

The notion of "ice fishing in Gimli" is simply a starting point from which the artist/author can connect various bits of texts, artworks, photographs and diffuse information from the Internet. The resultant literary scrapbook may be consumed at a reading station in the gallery or as take-out reading (although, weighing in at about 20 pounds, the tackle-box version is about as portable as an ice-fishing shack).

White, silver and pale wood, Kovitz's crisp installation consists of eight tape squares on the floor, parking stalls for tackle boxes, and provisional tables bending under the weight of the tomes. Slab-like stools and round holes in the centre of each table at once suggest ice fishing and Ikea. As the work is really about the written word and its consumption, it's unsurprising that it lacks a convincing gallery presence.

I'm not sure how many pages into this 4761-page work (57 of these pages are works cited) I got before my cheek came to rest against the raw lumber of the table. Drowsing, however, is a perfect state for reading, and Kovitz has provided the perfect sampling for my meandering attention. There is no thread of a plot to track or loose - the filament can slip at will through my fingers, as the text wriggles nimbly from idea to idea.

Occasionally, some startlingly witty juxtaposition - a poetic text about a star appearing at sunset faces a picture of a Valor throwing star, "4 point sharp," available for only $17.50 from Amazon.com - surfaces.

Sharing the gallery with Ice Fishing in Gimli is FAX, curated by Joào Ribas for Independent Curators International. The curatorial concept may be guilty of upstaging the artwork - artists are requested to send their artwork via a fax machine that chitters away in the space. All received faxes, including those from artists, as well as business documents and advertising, are archived and displayed in the gallery.

There's this really amazing girl named Sandee Moore who has some great work in this show! (wink!) Seriously, she should draw pictures of fax machines for user manuals. Other highlights in the FAX show include adorable line drawings from locals Leslie Supnet and Shaun (Slomo) Morin. Suzy Smith's cheeky repurposing of the curator's assigned cover sheet is a delectable bit of passive-aggressive conceptual art-making.

Some artists included in FAX contribute even more text to the gallery - Matt Higgs offers a self-deprecating text in a jaunty serif, Pamela Rozenhanz delivers capitulatory threats, and Barbara Bloom tests and entices with wingding eye charts.

Plug In will be hosting a closing party for FAX and Ice Fishing in Gimli on Feb. 19. These are the last exhibitions the gallery will host until its new building on Portage Avenue opens in the fall.

Sandee Moore left the mild climes of her B.C. home for the warm embrace of the Winnipeg arts community six years ago. She is an intermedia artist, a former director of Video Pool and occasional arts writer.

ICE FISHING IN GIMLI & FAX
Until Feb. 21, Plug In ICA