To mark the 150th anniversary of the Waterloo Region, we chose a theme that related to landscape and modes of looking at the land. Our theme for this year comes from a phrase by Northrop Frye: "The sense of probing into the distance, of fixing the eyes on the skyline, is something that Canadian sensibility has inherited from the voyageurs." Artists were asked to consider landscape, mapping, borders, and ways in which we parcel and understand the very ground that sustains us, that provides us with our home.

The expansion of area suburbs and the encroachment of development upon the region's borders have encouraged people and governments alike to consider the sustainability of the rapid growth of the Grand River Basin. Many of the projects dealt specifically with these issues while others could be termed more as exploration using these ideas as aesthetic starting points.