The Vancouver Art Gallery’s “Cabin Fever” is a celebration of the cabin as an icon in the United States and Canada. The large exhibit does a captivating job of presenting the cabin as a visual art piece that has shaped our countries and our cultures.

Much as barns, cabins represent the homestead and exploratory aspects of westward movement. While the barn represents stability of place, the cabin represents temporary shelter during migration and search for home.

One of the first pieces in the show takes up an entire room. It consists of a large rectangular box with a smaller rectangle and an even smaller square cut out of one side, with a narrow rectangle rising from a triangular cover over it all giving the unmistakable impact of a simple cabin that lives in the hearts and minds of us all.

Photographs and fine art, models and stories depict the self-reliance, labor and eastern influence that cabins represent. Log cabins, in particular, play a role in our appreciation of nature and escape from the hustle of everyday life. Henry Thoreau’s cabin and simple existence was one of the many installations that the Gallery has laid out in a fashion that invites you to slow down and think about your relationship and beliefs about nature, escapism and cabins.

Cabins have changed greatly since the early pioneers. For example, modulars from the 1920s and the 1950s, utopian structures in communities that include the hippies of the 1960s, as well as futuristic designs are included in an informational way that draws you into human nature’s need to dream, create and live different lifestyles, if only for a time.

From Log Cabin Syrup logos and Lincoln Log Toy Sets to Frank Lloyd Wright, the Vancouver Art Gallery has given the public an incredibly well-presented opportunity for introspection. The exhibit evolves through the themes of “Shelter,” introducing the cabin as a practical solution to patterns of westward expansion and emergency relief; “Utopia,” an examination of the cabin as the ideal locale to practice introspection or to escape the conventions of society; and “Porn,” showing the cabin as an idea fully integrated into popular culture.

Vancouver Art Gallery staff organized the exhibit. It is curated by Jennifer Volland, guest curator, Bruce Grenville, senior curator and Stepahanie Rebick, associate curator.

The exhibit runs through September 30. For more information: http://www.vanartgallery.bc.ca

Bobbi Krebs-McMullen is a resident of Pleasant Ridge and a cabin enthusiast