Faces on Places: A Grotesque Tour of Toronto identifies 65 buildings in Toronto with humanoid architectural sculpture and includes information I was able to find about why those faces appear where they do. It was published by House of Anansi Press in 2006, but since it went out of print as of late 2021, it is no longer available from the publisher. It appears to still be available from Amazon.ca and chapters.indigo.ca but if you have trouble getting it from those retailers, check bookfinder.com, an excellent site for out-of-print books from used booksellers around the world.

You can get a PDF preview chapter of the book by clicking facesonplaces.

Much to my surprise, I learned – almost as soon as Faces was published – that there were a lot more architectural faces in Toronto.

So I started a blog to continue logging the new faces I discovered in Toronto and elsewhere, along with whatever background information I’ve been able to find about them.

The book won the Heritage Toronto Award of Merit in 2007, and a third-place Alcuin Society Award for Excellence in Book Design in Canada (reference category) the same year, which is really a tribute to Ingrid Paulson, the book’s designer.

All material copyright © Terry Murray 2014-2022 unless indicated otherwise