More than 44,000 British and European women came to Canada as the wives of Canadian service personnel at the end of the Second World War, accompanied by 21,000 children from these marriages. The story of her war bride mother inspired artist Bev Tosh to paint a striking portrait, which is one of the key works in the War Brides exhibition. That first portrait led Tosh on an odyssey to meet, interview or correspond with nearly one thousand war brides. The resulting exhibition, War Brides, contains six major groupings of paintings and multimedia installations based on the war brides’ stories of romance, adventure, and personal journeys. Seventy-five nearly life-sized portraits form two installations called “bride ships”— referring to the 60 vessels that transported the women from Britain, mainly, but also from Holland, Italy, Belgium and France. Incorporating photographs, projections, parachutes, shoes, hatpins, and other materials, the works portray these women as they took a leap of faith in beginning their journey to Canada.