2011-12 VCU Libraries Exhibits
Watercolors by Victor A. Yanchick
An exhibition of watercolors by Victor A. Yanchick, Ph.D., Archie O. McCalley Dean and Professor, VCU School of Pharmacy. |
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Bedpan Elegance
While some acquire bedpans for their beauty — or as curiosities — Tompkins-McCaw Library collects them for their significance as artifacts of health care. Along with the other thousands of items in the Medical Artifacts Collection, the library preserves these implements for their innate historical value as well as their ability to illustrate changes in manufacturing and material culture over time. |
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Crime in Richmond in the '40s
This online exhibit explores crime in Richmond in the 1940s using the papers of FBI agent John E. Lawler which are housed in Special Collections and Archives. This site includes information on known criminals in the Richmond area, murder and prostitution in Richmond, a guide to the Lawler Papers, and links to relevant sites. |
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Holiday Pop-Up Books
On display are the following titles - part of Special Collections and Archives large collection of pop-up books.Winter’s Tale: An Original Pop-Up Journey. Robert Sabuda. 2005. The Twelve Days of Christmas. Robert Sabuda. 1996. The Night Before Christmas. Robert Sabuda. 2002. A Kwanzaa Celebration Pop-Up Book. By Nancy Williams and Robert Sabuda. 1995. Hanukkah! Sara Freeland and Sue Clark. 1991. The Story of the First Christmas. Ruth Sanderson. 1994. The Silent Night Advent Calendar. 1997. |
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Scripps Book Art Collection
The architectonic structure of Arch (2010) not only pays homage to famous female architects but was also created by a group of ten women artists. The Scripps College Press was founded in 1941in Claremont, California. In 1986, Kitty Maryatt, director of the press, created a program for art students to collaborate on book art projects. Since then, participants of the Typography and Book Arts class have produced two letterpress books each year. The works generated by the students focus on experimentation with text and language. The exhibit shows several examples of their work - all part of VCU Libraries Book Art Collection. |
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Lewis Ginter and the Allen and Ginter Tobacco Company of Richmond
This exhibit includes materials from cigarette card albums produced by the Allen and Ginter Co., ca. 1890, and other items that relate to the life and work of Richmond's Lewis Ginter (1824-1897), tobacco magnate and philanthropist. The exhibit was created to coincide with the Oct. 18, 2011 book talk by Brian Burns on his new biography of Ginter. |
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Aspen - the "Magazine in a Box"
Aspen, the “Magazine in a Box,” is a multimedia arts publication that ran from 1965-1971. Founded by editor Phyllis Johnson, Aspen was an innovative conception for its time and became the first three-dimensional magazine. Each issue came in a customized container filled with a wide array of materials from the leading American and European artists. |
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Zombies in Comic Books
The Zombie Project is one of several comic books featured in the Zombie exhibit. |
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Going Bananas for Mail Art
Anna Banana (b. 1940), formerly Anne Lee Long, is a visual and performance artist from Canada. Her obsession with bananas as art motifs encouraged her to legally change her name to Anna Banana in 1985. Since the 1970s, she has been a major innovator of mail art. Many of the pieces in this exhibit highlight materials from The Anna Banana Collection (1975-2007), which include publications, promotional ads, and a large array of stamps designed by the artist herself. |
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Images from Love and Rockets
VCU Libraries is celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month by hosting a special exhibit on the work of the Los Bros Hernandez. This exhibit features comic books and other work by Gilbert, Jamie, and to a lesser extent Mario Hernandez. The brothers self-published the first issue of their comic book series, Love and Rockets in 1981. The series was picked up by Fantagraphics Books, publisher of the Comics Journal in 1982, and became a major force in alternative comics. |
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Commemoration of the Tenth Anniversary
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Armed Forces in Comics
During World War II, the comics industry developed a genre in which the super heroes were replaced with real life heroes. Many war related comics continue to be published - including those involving WWII, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Several notable artists are featured in this exhibit but two collections stand out - items from the William E. Blake Collection of True Life 1940s Era Comics serve as an intriguing glimpse into the political climate and values of the time and materials from the PS Magazine Collection [comics on preventive maintenance, 1951-1972] reveal one of the first major efforts to use comics as an educational tool plus they were drawn by noted comic artist Will Eisner. This exhibit is part of |
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VCU Rams Memorabilia
Among the memorabilia are photographs, flyers, and pennants from decades past documenting both the history of the Rams and the evolution of their image. Also on display are items about the 2011 NCAA Basketball Championship. VCU Libraries welcomes donations of memorabilia from the recent championship. Items such as tickets, flyers, posters, t-shirts, pennants, cheer gear, and photographs, almost anything that will help document the season, are particularly desired. If you have items that you would be interested in donating, please bring them to Special Collections & Archives on the fourth floor of James Branch Cabell Library from Monday through Friday between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. Contact Special Collection & Archives at (804) 828-1108. |
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Stories Behind Bars (2010)
The Women’s Studio Workshop (WSW) is a non-profit organization located in Rosendale, New York. Founded in 1974, WSW is the largest publisher of hand printed, hand bound artists’ books in the country. VCU Libraries’ Special Collections and Archives is a repository for WSW with over 170 books from their collection. The six works highlighted in this exhibit place an emphasis on the power of words, language, and storytelling. For example, Ten Woodcuts by Zarina (1991) is a series of prints inspired by Urdu Proverbs. Stories Behind Bars (2010) are stories told by inmates of American prisons. How to Eat Your Enemy (2006) questions the American perception of terrorism by juxtaposing text from a 14th-century crusader manuscript with images from the FBI’s Most Wanted list. |
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Music Anthologies and the Comic Arts
Although the publication of musically inspired anthologies and biographies may seem like a current trend, the connection between comic art and music is not a new development. This exhibit showcases many old and new publications, including fanzines, magazines, comic books, and longer works. Among the many alternative titles held by Special Collections and Archives are the fanzine PUNK, created by comic artist John Holmstrom in 1976, and a nearly complete collection of Rolling Stone from 1971 until the late 1990s. |
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Romance Comics: Love, Angst, and the Female Reader
Romance comics emerged as a popular genre for adults in the late 1940s and 1950s because publishers wanted to appeal to a female audience. Overflowing with hearts - even those that are broken and on the mend - this exhibit showcases many covers and previews of the often melodramatic and retrospectively humorous storytelling. Special Collections and Archives has a small collection of romance comics primarily from the 1960s and 1970s in addition to research materials about the genre. |
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David Det Hompson
Davi Det Hompson was the pen name for David E. Thompson (1939-1996), a Richmond artist best known for creating mail art, book art, and text-based paintings inspired by the Dada and Fluxus movements. Beginning in the 1970s he taught in the School of the Arts at Virginia Commonwealth University. In 1978, he was one of the founders of 1708 East Main Street Gallery. hompson also made major contributions to Special Collections and Archives at the James Branch Cabell Library. Not only did he serve on a committee to establish the Book Arts Collection in 1979, he donated an assortment of book art, mail art, and archival materials. This exhibit showcases selections of his own work and examples of mail art he received from nationally renowned artists. His papers are housed in Special Collections and Archives. |
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Images from The Jackson Ward Historic District published in 1978.
More than 50 images of buildings are included in this exhibit. Donated by the city in 2008, they were originally used in The Jackson Ward Historic District published in 1978. The images were taken by John Zehmer and the text was provided by Richmond architectural historian Robert P. Winthrop. An online version of the book was created by VCU Libraries in 2008. http://dig.library.vcu.edu/ The online collection presents the entire book as originally published. VCU Libraries also digitized each of the original photographic prints used, scanned from the mock-up boards used in the preparation of the book for printing. Each photograph is presented with the accompanying text from the book, with additional information about the building's style and features. |
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