Preternatural is an exhibition catalogue published on the occasion of the exhibition "Preternatural," 9 December 2011 to 17 February 2012, Ottawa, Canada (http://www.preternatural.ca). The exhibition comprises three installation sites and 9 artists, all of whom explore the idea that art itself is a form of preternatural pursuit, in which they explore the bewildering condition of being in between the mundane and the marvelous in nature. It questions a world that understands itself as accessible, reachable, and 'knowable' and counters it with a consideration of this heterogenous proposition. Celina Jeffery is Associate Professor of Art History and Theory, and the Chair of the Visual Arts program at the University of Ottawa. She is the co-editor (with Gregory Minissale) of "Global and Local Art Histories" (2007) and the co-founder and editor of Drain Magazine: A Journal of Contemporary Art and Culture (2004-present).