In August 2015, PLANT was awarded the commission to design a permanent public artwork for Lyon station in the City of Ottawa’s new Confederation Line LRT. Located on the concourse level at Lyon Station, With Words as Their Actions | Par la Force des Mots celebrates women as keepers of history – and in particular, the 32 women who, in 1898, founded the Ottawa chapter of the Women’s Canadian Historical Society (now the Historical Society of Ottawa). In 1954, Anne Dewar, a member of the society, presented “The Last Days of Bytown”, a lively documentation of life in the community a century earlier, when it was on the verge of changing its name from Bytown to Ottawa and becoming Canada’s capital. With Words as Their Actions features Dewar’s 5,000-word text laser-cut into a 75′-long curving stainless steel curtain. Lines of text cut through on one side in English interweave with the French translation cut through on the other side, recalling the intricacy of hand embroidery and other fabric arts traditionally considered ‘women’s work’.

Instead of reading this lacy curtain of words all at once, transit riders can absorb a bit of it each time they pass through the station; the turned-out letters that add texture to the artwork also act as bookmarks, making it easy to ‘pick up where you left off’. Silhouettes representing the society’s founders gathered in conversation preside over the curtain, passing their knowledge from one another, and to the viewer.

With Words as Their Actions | Par la Force des Mots is part of the permanent collection of the City of Ottawa Art Collection. Two exhibitions also document the making of the artwork: ”Transformations” at Rideau Station and the City Hall Art Gallery/​Karsh-Masson Gallery to the end of January 2020.

The morning rush
The ladies in conversation
The curtain seems solid and transparent as it bends
The ladies wrap around the viewer
The curtain weaves around the columns
The ladies preside over the conversation
View from the escalator
The curtain ripples through the station
Weaving French and English
The bookmarks

  1. A Conversation of Views
  2. Admiral Road Garden
  3. Airdrie Road Garden
  4. Airdrie Road Residence
  5. Albany Avenue Residence
  6. Alcina Garden
  7. Alexandra Park
  8. Alwington Landscape / Garden Pavilion
  9. Aporia Records
  10. Ardwick Townhouses
  11. Asphalt Poetry
  12. – Poem
  13. Baby Point Gardens
  14. Beach Garden
  15. Beach Village BIA Master Plan
  16. Beaty Residence
  17. Bennington Hts Garden
  18. Bennington Hts Ravine Garden 1
  19. Berkeley Street Residence
  20. Bin-Scarth Garden
  21. Blink and you miss it.
  22. – Poem
  23. Block 22 Landscape
  24. Bloor St. Apartment
  25. Blue Note
  26. Booth Avenue Residence
  27. Boustrophedon Garden
  28. Braemore Gardens Residence
  29. Brahms Townhouses
  30. Browning Avenue Residence
  31. Brunswick Avenue Residence
  32. Camp Arowhon Offices
  33. Canadian Firefighters Memorial
  34. Catch / Renew / Release
  35. Channelled Buried Moved Lost
  36. Chocolate Loft
  37. City Instrument
  38. Clarendon Garden
  39. Conversation Piece
  40. Cortleigh Boulevard Garden
  41. Creemore Farm
  42. Danforth Mosaic BIA Master Plan
  43. Danforth Parkettes
  44. Dickson Park Garden
  45. Dilworth Residence
  46. Don Landing Revitalization
  47. Dublin Grounds of Remembrance
  48. Duncanwoods Townhouses
  49. Dundas Roncesvalles Peace Garden
  50. Dupont-by-the-Castle BIA
  51. East Point Bird Sanctuary
  52. Eglinton Ave. Forecourt
  53. Eglinton Park Master Plan
  54. Elizabeth Fry Society
  55. Ellsworth Residence
  56. Face to Face | Tête à Tête
  57. First Avenue Garden
  58. First Avenue Residence
  59. Flyover Canada
  60. Foote’s Pond Wood
  61. Forest Hill Village Streetscape
  62. Gaze, Glimpse, Glance
  63. Global Affairs Monument
  64. Goldring Landscape, University of Toronto
  65. Gormley Garden
  66. Governor's Bridge Lookout
  67. Greener P
  68. Greer Road Garden
  69. Greer Road Residence
  70. Guelph Bridge
  71. Head in the Clouds
  72. Helena Ave Residence 4
  73. Jean Tweed Addition + Laneway House
  74. Junction Craft Brewery
  75. Kelpies Competition
  76. Kew Gardens Streetscape
  77. King's Landing Apartment
  78. Kipling & Islington Developments
  79. Lakeport Beach Neighbourhood
  80. Le jardin du repos
  81. Lenticular Curtain
  82. Leslie Slip Lookout Park
  83. Liberty Village Parkettes
  84. Liza’s Garden
  85. Lynwood Garden
  86. Macroscape
  87. Makwa Waakaa'igan
  88. Markham Garden One
  89. Markham Street Residence Two
  90. Massey College Landscape Restoration
  91. May Street Ravine
  92. Midtown Yonge Streetscape
  93. Montreal Holocaust Memorial Competition
  94. Mount Dennis Parkettes
  95. Mulock Park
  96. Nathan Phillips Square
  97. – Streetscape
  98. – Peace Garden
  99. – Podium Roof Garden
  100. Octane Medical Campus
  101. Orchard View Garden
  102. Osgoode Atkinson Green Competition
  103. Owl Cottage
  104. Paperstone Scissors
  105. Pendrith Residence
  106. Peripheral Sitings
  107. Pottery Road Crossing
  108. rare
  109. Ravine Forecourt
  110. Ribbon of the Lower Don
  111. Riverside BIA Master Plan
  112. Roxborough Garden One
  113. Roxborough Garden Two
  114. Schulich School of Business
  115. Sheridan College
  116. – Trafalgar Campus Master Plan
  117. Spadina Quay Wetland
  118. St. Anne's Road Garden
  119. St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts
  120. Stratford Market Square Competition
  121. Stratford Patterson Theatre Competition
  122. Superkids Dental
  123. Superlegible
  124. Sweet Farm
  125. Sweet Farm Pond House
  126. Swift Medical Offices
  127. The Meadows Reconsidered
  128. The Red Sash
  129. The Sara Jackman Playground
  130. Thick & Thin
  131. Thistletown II Townhouses
  132. Tipping Point
  133. TMU Centre for Urban Innovation
  134. TMU Science Building
  135. Tranby Garden
  136. Tree House Residence
  137. UBC Okanagan – The Commons
  138. UHN Tunnels
  139. University of Toronto Mississauga Welcome Centre
  140. UW Mathematics Landscape
  141. Venice Biennale 2012
  142. Vermont Square Park
  143. Vernon Avenue Garden
  144. Walker Townhouse Courtyard
  145. Walk the Walk
  146. Walmer Road Residence
  147. Welland Canal Fallen Workers Memorial
  148. Wellesley Cottages Garden
  149. Wells Street Residence
  150. Wendat Square
  151. Westminster Residence
  152. Weston Village BIA Masterplan
  153. With Words as Their Actions
  154. Woodlawn Avenue Residence
  155. Woven Stories
  156. Wynford Drive Residences
  157. York Park
  158. Yorkwoods Townhouses
  159. Young Centre for the Perfoming Arts