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The reference letter should be from an individual who is able to speak of the suitability of your work for the award, for example: a mentor, a colleague or collaborator. The reference letter should be sent as part of the single PDF file whenever possible, but if your referee prefers to send it separately, they may email it to awards.oslerlibrary [at] mcgill.ca (awards[dot]oslerlibrary[at]mcgill[dot]ca) before the application deadline. Please address the letter to Head Librarian, Dr. Mary Hague-Yearl.

The residence is open to all, though for logistical reasons, preference is typically given to artists who either reside in or can easily travel to Montreal.

The research component of the residency can be conducted according to the artist’s schedule anytime from October to April. However, all work must be completed and the exhibition ready to open by April 30, 2027. Artists typically conduct research at the library for a duration of 2 to 3 weeks, which may be consecutive or spread out, depending on the artist’s needs and the nature of the project. Please outline your plans in your proposed timeline.

The results are typically announced in August or September. All applicants will be notified of the results.

There is no predefined number, though most past applicants have submitted 5 to 15 images.

There is unfortunately no space available for artistic production at the Osler Library. The Library will provide the artist with research support, space to conduct research with Osler Library materials, as well as exhibition space.

The duration of the exhibition varies according to the yearly exhibition calendar and the needs of the artist, but often run for 3-6 months. 

Ev Ricky (they/them/theirs, xe/ xyr/xyrs) is a Tiohtià:ke (“Montréal”)-based white settler, multidisciplinary visual artist, writer, graphic novelist, zine-maker, and cultural worker, whose work has appeared in the Ignatz Award-winning anthology “We’re Still Here” and was once described as “pert” and “young” by Vaginal Creme Davis. Agender, immunocompromised, and chronically ill with an invisibilized disability, they’re interested in using bodily forms and processes in xyr work to explore the interior experience of being in a body as a fundamentally unknowable, inarticulable position.

Ev’s most recent body of work has been in graphic medicine, pathographics, print media, and book arts, to tangle with alternative sensoria, the immune system as a critical optic, speculative fiction, harm reduction, access intimacies (a term coined by Mia Mingus), dyke culture, early print culture, and third space theory. On the level of process, xe really enjoys materiality and material processes as a playground in their work, and xyr curiosity is often grounded by questions about slipperiness, stickiness, permeability, squishiness, scratching, palpating, breathing, bursting, stretching, squeezing, and bouncing. Alongside their research project at the Michèle Larose-Osler Library artist residency, xe is also working on a comic art manuscript entitled I Wouldn’t Lie to You. You can follow their work at evricky.com or @ev.r_icky on Instagram.

Stéphan Ballard's life and work have revolved around Montreal. Having pursued studies in graphic design and photography at Concordia University, he swiftly emerged onto the artistic scene with participation in numerous collective and solo exhibitions spanning across Canada and Europe. His creative path took a significant turn in 1996 when he was honored with the Barbara Spohr Grant, which led him to a period of development at the Banff Art Centre. Here, he integrated emerging new media into his artistic process, benefiting from a multidisciplinary foundation in design, art, and photography.

Stéphan Ballard's artistic beginnings intersected with technological advancements, as he navigated the transition from traditional chemical photography to the digital realm. This transformative phase nurtured a deep sensitivity to the ever-evolving landscape of technology and reinforced the importance of cultivating adaptable creativity in response to shifting mediums.

Stéphan Ballard's artistic path also led him into unexpected territories. Amid the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, he found himself recruited by the medical photography team at CHU Sainte-Justine. Here, he stumbled upon the realm of medical photography and, with great enthusiasm, surgical photography. His prior engagement with the National Film Board of Canada, a bastion of documentary cinema, prepared him for this privilege, and he ardently embarked on a quest to master the art of surgical photography.

This journey amalgamated innovative capture techniques with composite imaging processes borrowed from cinema, amplifying the potential of photographic documentation for surgical education. Encouraged by the surgical department, his initiative and experimentation in capturing these images garnered widespread appreciation, and to his gratifying surprise, his artistic images found an esteemed place within the lexicon of medical imaging for educational purposes.

This achievement led him to be awarded the Michèle-Larose Osler Grant. His ongoing project involves collaborating with surgeons to juxtapose the content of venerable medical illustrations with operating room interventions, offering a unique perspective on the history of medical imaging. Since June, he has been ardently dedicated to this endeavor.

• Ana María Gómez López is an artist whose practice centers on durational works based on self-experimentation and archival research in history of science. Her projects use botanical specimens, prosthetic implants, medical equipment, lens-based media, and recorded sound to expand understandings of corporeal selfhood. Ana María’s works have been exhibited at the Rijksmuseum Boerhaave, the Fonds d'art contemporain Genève, the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, and the American University Museum, among others. She has held fellowships at the Max Planck Institute for History of Science, the Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscripts Library, and the Center for Experimental Museology of the V-A-C Foundation. In 2015, she was awarded the Premio Nacional de Artes (National Award in the Arts) by the Universidad de Antioquia and the Colombian Ministry of Culture. An anthropologist with undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, Ana María completed her MFA at the Yale University School of Art and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. She was a former resident at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten (2017-2018), and is currently an artist-in-residence at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences.

• Travaillant à partir d’une position féministe, avec un intérêt marqué pour la santé - intime, publique, sociale et politique – Caroline Boileau crée des œuvres qui s’élaborent par une pratique multidisciplinaire à travers l’installation, le dessin, la vidéo et la performance. Depuis 1995, elle développe des projets en dialogue avec différents contextes : hôpitaux, bibliothèques d’histoire de la médecine, bibliothèques généralistes et de quartier, laboratoires de biologie, musées d’histoire et musées spécialisés, parcs et espaces publics. Ces contextes, les gens qui y gravitent, les collections et objets qu’ils abritent, deviennent des matériaux qui lui permettent de remettre en question ses façons de faire tout en explorant différentes stratégies de travail, dispositifs visuels et formes plastiques. 
• Working from a feminist perspective, with a strong interest in health - intimate, public, social and political – Caroline Boileau creates works that are developed through a multidisciplinary practice through installation, drawing, video and performance. Since 1995, she has developed projects in dialogue with different contexts: hospitals, medical history libraries, special collection libraries, biology laboratories, art and history museums, parks and public spaces. These places, the people who gravitate in and around them, the collections and objects they house, become materials that question and challenge her ways of doing things, enabling her to consider different work strategies, visual devices and plastic forms. 

• Museums, libraries and local history are a frequent focus in Loren Williams' art practice. For this residency she explored Montreal's early medicinal gardens, locating the sites on old maps and researching the plants that grew in them. Using a 19th century photographic process called Cyanotype, she created deep blue coloured images of the plants that were evocative of X-rays and cellular structures. Most significant for the artist, was the unique context of the Osler Library which enabled her to pursue her work from a medical history perspective.

• Dr. Lucy Lyons received her PhD from Sheffield Hallam University. Her practice focuses on drawing within medical museums and working collaboratively to explore the beauty of collections. She is especially interested in the hidden, the overlooked, insignificant or in-between. This residency will allow her to push and explore her own practice and develop work in new ways whilst bringing new audiences to the collections.