Borderline

As if Jamie Hewlett's Tank Girl met Paul Pope in an Indigenous future...

In her highly anticipated first book Mi'kmaq artist Zeta Paul tells her story as an Indigenous urban youth, her perspective of the world transitioning into a digital era, straying from nature and into a gray monochromatic capitalist society that is constantly reinforcing the ideology that 'life could be better'. The title 'Borderline' refers to both a diagnoses of Borderline Personality Disorder but is also a reflection on a home life that has no stability, no control, no voice, and how growing up in borderline circumstances has affected her life and how it continues into adulthood. Through grand scenes that have 'eye spy' maximalism paired with visual storytelling these drawings of Indigenous Futurism, short comics, bus shelter art, and more, Paul expresses the duality of emotions and how it can be a blessing to be an overly emotional cry baby, a flakey friend, a rager, or a hyper fixated hobbyist. That being an individual in all its strangeness and depth of character is anything but linear, and that one of the most important things for healing is letting go of internalized borderline expectations, and just be yourself.

Inspired by artists such as Kent Monkman and Hayao Miyazaki this book is an important resource for other Indigenous youth to identify with and anyone that has struggled with mental illness, money, abusive family dynamics, societal expectations, reconnecting with oneself, nature, culture, and spirituality.

Zeta Paul is a L'nu/Settler illustrator and interdisciplinary artist. Born and raised in Kjipuktuk, Mi'kma'ki (Halifax, Nova Scotia). Zeta attended NSCAD University until she decided to put her work into action, she now is focusing on indigenous book illustration, works such as Muinji'j Asks Why and The Friendship Centre. Zeta aspires to create engaging imagery that is exciting, immersive, and thought provoking, that holds deeper messages about culture, identity, mental health, and being an indigenous woman in a post-colonial world. She continues to live in Halifax.