SYBIL JACOBSON: PAINTING IN THE WEST. Alexander, Mary G. Toronto, HMS Press, c1984. 80pp, paper, $6.95, ISBN 0-919957-14-5. CIP Grades 9 and up Reviewed by Carrie Gardner Volume 14 Number 1 1986 January For many years women artists have been excluded from the world of art history and, if included, have been trivialized for their lack of technique or for their choice of subject matter. We now see their re-emergence in all fields of artistic endeavour; in monographs, essays, and collected works. It is a delight to include this small volume in their midst. Sybil Jacobson is notable not only for her persistence in painting in a realistic style when this was not popular, but for including painting in a life fraught with personal difficulties. "Sybil, too, felt almost driven. For Sybil, as with so many women artists, there was an added complication to that disease. This was the necessity to try to effect some kind of workable balance between two compelling forces which were pulling her in opposite directions, her compulsion to paint and her love and concern for her family. How Sybil dealt with that problem is part of the story of her life." This short volume is well researched and places Jacobson and her work in the early history of the West. It is with great meticulousness in research that the course of her life and work is traced. A valuable asset to our new heritage of women artists. Carrie Gardner, Seneca C.C., Toronto, Ont.