Part art installation, part performance and part travelling archive, Voices at Hand is an ongoing project that serves to examine the essence of why we keep letters. Join artist Wendy Trusler on Trent's   east & west banks for the latest chapter of this unpredictable, spontaneous, private, yet wonderfully public installation. 

Voices at Hand debuted in March 2010 in downtown Peterborough when Trusler staged a month-long residency in a storefront window. A marriage proposal, letters from a soldier in a WWII POW camp, volumes of cringe-worthy notes passed in class in the '90s and a joyous recounting of a reunion in the Channel Islands five days after Liberation Day were among the letters Trusler shared during readings.    

After four more ports of call across Ontario, the collection now sits at close to 3,300 letters written in English, French, Italian, Spanish and Russian, spanning 157 years of correspondence. The project has developed a world-wide following on Twitter, Facebook and on it's blog.

Posted on Thursday, January 19, 2012.