ONCE UPON a time, in 1972, there was an alternative art gallery in Montreal that went by the name of Vehicule Art Inc. Last month, there was a retrospective show featuring that gallery`s heroic age: a kite fly-in at a downtown plaza, the Brother Andre`s Heart exhibition, and the Corridart posters from 1976, when Mayor jean Drapeau expunged the city`s art in the name of Olympic cleanliness and order. By no small coincidence, the gallery was housed in what had once been the Montmartre Club, an important jazz venue in the city in the 1930s. Now that gallery has metamorphosed into a publishing house that delves back into Montreal`s history by way of jazz, and also puts out some of Canada`s best poetry. In between hangs a tale of an art gallery/printing press/publishing house that learned to change with the times. Though Vehicule Press is pushing 20, an eternity in the life of small presses, it maintains the home-made atmosphere of its beginnings. The publisher, Simon Dardick, still works out of an office in his home, and with the co-owner, Nancy Marrelli, still makes the food for Vehicule`s launchings. At the party for Josh Freed`s humorous collection of Montreal anthropology, Sign Language, the wine had been made by the author`s brother; and, believe me, it was far better than what`s being poured at most book events in this city. But home-made hors d`oeuvres and wine aren`t responsible for Vehicule`s survival and expansion over the last two decades. What`s allowed the house to prosper - if such a word can be used in the small-press world - and become influential is Dardick`s ability to expand his list, and reflect his twin passions for social history and poetry. As well, he has been able to attract writers from outside the immediate community, often a problem with small presses. Thanks to its Signal Editions imprint, edited by Michael Harris, Vehicule Press is probably best known as a poetry publisher. In its early days as a gallery cum printer, Vehicule published visual works, artists` books, and various oddities by George Bowering, Suzy Lake, David McFadden, Opal Nations, Ken Norris, and Bill Vazan. Even in the mid-1970s, though, the penchant for poetry was present. The turning point for Vehicule was 1980, when Simon Dardick took over sole direction of the press. The following year, the co-op printing and publishing venture was dissolved, and for the first time, the printing was farmed out, freeing Dardick for editorial work. Michael Harris was appointed editor of the Signal series. A new life had begun for Vehicule That life saw the publication of poets from Montreal, and elsewhere, such as Marie-Claire Blais (in a Harris translation), Don Coles, Louis Dudek, Bill Furey, Susan Glickman, Erin Moure, David Solway, Ricardo Sternberg, and many others. Of them, Solway stands out as emblematic of the Montreal poetic tradition of intellect, craft, and mordant and ironic self evaluation. Jan Conn`s collection South of the Tudo Bem Cafe appeals for its use of anecdote and spoken language twisted into poet Harris`s editor ship has also brought praise from those associated with his imprint: Rhea Tregebov, whose poetry collection The Proving Grounds has just been published, calls his work "able and inspiring" Social history is the other branch of Vehicule It`s no accident that Nancy Marrelli is an archivist at Concordia University, for several of the house`s recent books owe much to the exploration of local culture. Examples are John Gillmore`s two books on jazz in Montreal, Bryan Demchinsky`s collection on the city`s architecture, and a compendium of Yiddish life and culture called An Everyday Miracle, edited by Ira Robinson, Pierre Anctil, and Mervin Butovsky. One area of Vehicule`s publishing that has purposely faded over the last few years is literary criticism. Sherrill Grace`s 1980 study of Margaret Atwood, Violent Dualities, was, according to the publisher, the first critical book on the much-studied author. Vehicule also allowed its readers to study up on Michael Ondaatje through Sam Solecki`s Spider Blues and offered Spreading Time, a collection of Earle Birney`s non-fiction writings. "In 1980," says Dardick, "it was important to publish literary criticism of Canadian authors, because no one else was doing it. That`s not the case now." What is important, he says, is his Dossier Quebec series. These are non-fiction books, some of which are close to traditional scholarly publishing, on the Quebec social and political landscape. In the Dossier, there`s everything from the pre-Confederation tales of Philippe Aubert de Gaspe to an essay on Quebec nationalism in the pre-Second-World-War years by Michael Oliver, once the research director for the Bilingualism and Biculturalism Commission. Dardick has turned his perilous position as an English publisher in Quebec into an advantage. If there`s anyone who can convince you of the absolute privilege and excitement of working in the arts in English in Quebec, it`s him. Call it the clear-sightedness that comes from being in the margins, or the best of two worlds, but Dardick`s commitment to neighbourhood, city, and province are as strong as any of the other 6.5 million quebecois. Of current political affairs, he says, "My role is to let people outside Quebec know what`s going on here. And in public debate, I can help fight the revisions of history that are taking place on both sides." His work editing the Michael Oliver book has fascinated him. "I was reading a speech by Henri Bourassa from the 1920s the other day. It`s uncanny how similar his speeches are to some of the things Lucien Bouchard is saying. You know, Henri Bourassa sat side by side in the Commons with J. S. Woodsworth, the founder of the CCF, and they actually became friends." Dardick pauses. "Too bad some of those left-wing ideas didn`t go from Woodsworth`s head to Bourassa`s!" Politics wasn`t exactly in Dardick`s blood; he admits to basking in a state of naivete when he moved from Kingston, Ontario, to Montreal in 1966 to study English at what is now Concordia University. He dropped out, tried his hand at painting under Guido Molinari`s influence, and worked as a disassembler for Expo 67, taking apart the Russian and Australian pavilions and shipping them back to their home countries. His conversion to politics took place one December morning in 1969, when a soft-spoken man with a southern U.S. accent asked him for help on a Montreal street. That man turned out to be the Tennessee singer/songwriter Jesse Winchester. Through him, Dardick began to see the bigger picture of global politics. He went on to help organize a union at the Concordia University library, and became active in the movement to aid American draft dodgers. That drive for justice is still present in his list; witness the books on women and science, and women in Jewish theology. His favourite title on the list after nearly two decades of publishing? "It`s like choosing your favourite child," he says. "My favourite book is always the one I`m working on now." Though Dardick didn`t name Gerald Godin`s Evenings at Loose Ends, that book of poetry might be his most representative: after all, Godin is both poet and politician.