Documenting Border Barriers – Pamela Dodds
Press release courtesy of Pamela Dodds
Bulgaria – Turkey Border Barrier, etching-and-relief print, plate size, 8×16 in. / 20×40 cm
Pamela Dodds: Documenting Border Barriers
Addressing the exponential rise in the building of fences and walls on the
borders of nations and territories to keep people out.
Fall 2026 Exhibition Lineup:
Oct 2 – Nov 14, 2026
Group Exhibition
Sanctuary: Borders & Belonging
in 2026
Rochester Contemporary
Arts Center
Rochester, NY, USA
Oct 28 – Dec 10, 2026
Documenting Border Barriers, Pamela Dodds
Solo Exhibition
Oresman Gallery
at Smith College
Northampton, MA, USA
Nov 7, 2026 – Feb 27, 2027
Solo Exhibition
Grebel Gallery at
Centre for Peace Advancement
Conrad Grebel Univ. College
University of Waterloo
Ontario, Canada
About Documenting Border Barriers
Documenting Border Barriers is a growing compendium of 25+ portraits of anti-migration border walls. It is a research-based series of etching-and-relief prints that are displayed as an installation. The work addresses the exponential rise in the building of fences and walls between nations and territories to keep people out. Each print portrays a specific border barrier in the world today.
As the number of people on the move has risen in recent years, so has the building of physical barriers. Wall-building, and tightening of immigration regulations have escalated on the borders of Europe, on the USA-Mexico border, in the Middle East, and on numerous borders worldwide. People fleeing war and economic and environmental crises are met with fences, walls and violence. Since 2000, the number of physical border barriers in the world has risen from about 15 to more than 75.
The artwork that comprises Documenting Border Barriers is created in the drypoint etching medium, the technique of scratching the image into the plate, then inking, wiping and printing onto paper. Through this direct method, razor wire, cement and steel are portrayed with visceral immediacy. To emphasize the severity of the barrier architecture on the land, representations of specific surroundings are omitted. Instead, an impression of landscape and Nature is created with an under-printing of wood grain patterns printed from boards.
Each print in the series is accompanied by a digitally printed text print of the same dimension, on the same grey paper, providing detailed information like height, length, surveillance systems, and people affected. The imagery and texts are derived from online research, news reports, testimonials, and engagement with researchers, journalists and activists in the field.
Details from Documenting Border Barriers. Drypoint & relief print. 11×19 in. / 28×48 cm, edition of 3, with digitally printed companion text print. Completion dates: 2021-2025.
About Pamela Dodds
Pamela Dodds (b. 1956, Halifax, Canada) works in printmaking, drawing and painting. Through her work, she explores the complexities and nuances of interpersonal relationships, and the reflection of these narratives in communities and societies. Purchasers include Cleveland Museum of Art, USA, and Krakow Print Society, Poland. McMaster Museum of Art, Canada recently purchased a selection of prints from Documenting Border Barriers. She lives and works in Toronto, Canada.
The installation of Documenting Border Barriers has appeared at the 2022 Border Walls & Borderlands International Academic Conference, University of Quebec in Montreal, at Museo de Arte, Nogales, Sonora, Mexico – just steps south of the US border wall, 2023, and in the borderlands city of Bolzano-Bozen, South Tyrol, Italy, 2025-26. In 2024, the work received awards at international printmaking bi/triennials in Brussels, Belgium, and Krakow, Poland. Dodds has presented this work as a panelist at international academic conferences in Arizona, Canada and Morocco.
Pamela Dodds: Documenting Border Barriers Installation View Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, 2023.