Shriya NevatiaThe Book is a World
October 12th 2006 07:30
I revisited the State Library’s exhibition, Mirror of the World books & ideas, because I like it so much. Okay, I am attempting to write an essay about it as well which necessitated my going back to see it, but I really can’t get enough of the books.
There is such a huge concept behind the exhibition, which is about showing the history of the world through books. The exhibition is not chronological as you may expect, rather it is arranged by themes, my two favorite being the first section, ‘books and ideas’ and the second section, ‘books and the imagination’. Even if you ride a bike through Tibet, I believe the furthest place you can ever travel is your own mind, and the exhibition is an example of how books can help you enter places you never knew existed.
The idea that a book is a world in itself which you can experience almost in secret when you have the sensation of reading a book is open for everyone in the exhibition. World-changing books like the Torah are seen with Einstein’s theories and Germaine Greer’s The Female Eunuch. Pulp fiction and graphic novels can be seen, and it’s not just being able to see a cuneiform tablet which is the earliest form of writing, or a chained book as objects, it’s about being able to see with your mind the open page of the wonders contained within a book.
The exhibition also contains some amazing book illustrations, examples of botanical and exploration art as well as artists such as German printmaker Dürer, Italian Piranasi, Japan’s Hokusai and bookplates by Australian Eric Thake.
Upstairs in The Changing face of Victoria exhibition is Ned Kelly’s armor, but in the Mirror of the world you are able to see the computer and material used by Peter Carey to write the True History of the Kelly Gang.
While I was making some notes in the exhibition, a security guard appeared from nowhere and said, ‘its two hundred dollars if you’re are making copies of any of this stuff’. Apparently this was meant to be funny. Sure, the State Library needs to work on its sense of humor and its diabolical photocopying system for that matter, but it does a fantastic book exhibition.
There is such a huge concept behind the exhibition, which is about showing the history of the world through books. The exhibition is not chronological as you may expect, rather it is arranged by themes, my two favorite being the first section, ‘books and ideas’ and the second section, ‘books and the imagination’. Even if you ride a bike through Tibet, I believe the furthest place you can ever travel is your own mind, and the exhibition is an example of how books can help you enter places you never knew existed.
The idea that a book is a world in itself which you can experience almost in secret when you have the sensation of reading a book is open for everyone in the exhibition. World-changing books like the Torah are seen with Einstein’s theories and Germaine Greer’s The Female Eunuch. Pulp fiction and graphic novels can be seen, and it’s not just being able to see a cuneiform tablet which is the earliest form of writing, or a chained book as objects, it’s about being able to see with your mind the open page of the wonders contained within a book.
The exhibition also contains some amazing book illustrations, examples of botanical and exploration art as well as artists such as German printmaker Dürer, Italian Piranasi, Japan’s Hokusai and bookplates by Australian Eric Thake.
Upstairs in The Changing face of Victoria exhibition is Ned Kelly’s armor, but in the Mirror of the world you are able to see the computer and material used by Peter Carey to write the True History of the Kelly Gang.
While I was making some notes in the exhibition, a security guard appeared from nowhere and said, ‘its two hundred dollars if you’re are making copies of any of this stuff’. Apparently this was meant to be funny. Sure, the State Library needs to work on its sense of humor and its diabolical photocopying system for that matter, but it does a fantastic book exhibition.
Front cover of the exhibition brochure State Library of Victoria 2005
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