Barrier Canyon Style

Thousands of Years of Painting on Rock

By Phil Geib
Photography by Goodloe Suttler

Barrier Canyon Style (BCS), primarily composed of Indigenous American pictographs that have survived for thousands of years in the canyon country of eastern Utah and far western Colorado, is among the most visually stunning pictograph traditions in the world. This excellent reference, featuring over one hundred photographs, is the first to focus solely on the art and its context.

Barrier Canyon Style begins with a vicarious tour of twenty of the most important BCS sites. High-quality photographs by Goodloe Suttler accompany text by Phil R. Geib, an expert in rock imagery and archaic time-period archaeology. The volume provides explanations of motif classifications and their meanings, as well as details on the chronology of human occupation in the area, the array of techniques used by Native people to leave marks upon rock surfaces, and a consideration of styles and subject matter observable in these artworks.

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Phil R. Geib has worked as an archaeologist for over forty years, focusing on the Colorado Plateau in southern Utah and northern Arizona. He is the author of Foragers and Farmers of the Northern Kayenta Region.

Goodloe Suttler is a fine art photographer interested in a variety of subject matters that benefit from continuing technology advancements. His 2011 solo exhibit, The Oldest Paintings in America, focused on Barrier Canyon Style Native American rock paintings from Utah.