Canon: what ARE we babbling about?

[Bêthberry]

Originally Posted by The Saucepan Man

To change the subject ( ), I found the following comment by Kuruharan on another thread (Melkor's depiction by artists: Flawed?) interesting in this context:

Do we include Tolkien's own drawings and paintings of the peoples and locations of Middle-earth within "Middle-earth Canon"? It seems to me that they clearly fall within the third option on the poll, which refers to his "ideas" being included. Which would mean that any concept of Middle-earth which contradicted any of Tolkien's own illustrations would be non-canonical.

You know, I think SpM is on to something here. I believe that in terms of art, the relevant word used to refer to an artist's work is ... oeuvre rather than canon.

And, in fact, good old dictionary.com says

A work of art.
The sum of the lifework of an artist, writer, or composer.

Perhaps we should jettison this word 'canon' rather than any part of the, ah, oeuvre?

Particularly in respect of Tolkien's view of the Machine.