A visit to the Morgan, at 225 Madison Ave., presents the opportunity to see two incredible, and incredibly different, exhibitions. First up, Alfred Jarry: The Carnival of Being, a look at the subversive works and personality of the French writer Alfred Jarry (1873–1907), who played a crucial role in the transition from the nineteenth-century avant-garde to the emergent modernist movements of the early twentieth century. Second, The Book of Ruth: Medieval to Modern presents the Rose Book of Ruth, designed and illuminated by New York artist Barbara Wolff between 2015 and 2017, in conversation with twelve manuscripts, drawn from the Morgan's holdings. Of course while you're there, enjoy two exhibitions of drawings—Jean-Jacques Lequeu: Visionary Architect and The Drawings of Al Taylor.
Courtesy of The Morgan Library & Museum, gift of Robert J. and Linda Klieger Stillman, 2017. PML 197035. Photography by Janny Chiu.
The current exhibition should be a big hit with Rare Book Week attendees: The Book Beautiful: Margaret Armstrong & Her Bindings covers (pun intended) one of America's most sought-after book cover designers from the turn of the twentieth century. During Armstrong's remarkable career, more than a million books with her covers made their way into homes and libraries across America. Today, her covers are prized by scholars and collectors alike. This exhibition showcases some of her most exquisite covers, along with historic photographs and documents.
Courtesy of New York Society Library
If you've perused the articles in the spring issue, you may already be familiar with two of the exhibitions on view at the N-YHS, located at 170 Central Park West, this spring. Women March celebrates the centennial and the legacy of the 19th Amendment and features some items from the Dobkin collection (see pages 11-12). Colonists, Citizens, Constitutions: Creating the American Republic, also on view, takes a close look at the fundamental principles of government through forty books and documents from the Dorothy Tapper Goldman Foundation's collection. If you're still in town post-fair, The People Count: The Census in the Making of America, which opens March 13, showcases David Rubenstein's collection of early books and manuscripts related to the U. S. Census.
Credit: Ardon Bar-Hama
The first exhibition to explore the legacy of Gilded Age author and reformer Zoe Anderson Norris (1860- 1914), The Grolier Club’s To Fight for the Poor with My Pen: Zoe Anderson Norris, Queen of Bohemia runs March 2―May 13th. An investigative journalist dubbed Queen of Bohemia, Norris founded The East Side newspaper, and wrote for a number of other newspapers and periodicals. She fought for the rights of women, children and immigrants, often going undercover to expose prejudice, corruption and police brutality. A socialite who used her powers for good, Norris founded the activist Ragged Edge Klub, whose raucous weekly dinner and dancing meetings included diverse members from all across the social strata.
Courtesy of Eve M. Kahn
Made at NYPL, on view at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building on Fifth Ave. at 42nd Street, offers a refreshing angle on how primary source material is used by highlighting a small but representative sample of original works—e.g., novels, nonfiction, documentaries, poetry, drawings—that were produced using the library's unique and extensive resources. At the NYPL's Schomberg Center at 515 Malcolm X Blvd., Subversion & The Art of Slavery Abolition explores how abolitionists used speeches and pamphlets, novels, slave narratives, newspapers, poetry, music, and the visual arts, to agitate for enslaved peoples' right to liberty and equality.
Courtesy of the New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.
Located at 28 W. 27th St., 3rd floor, the Center for Book Arts hosts exhibitions and gallery events in addition to its usual full calendar of bookbinding and printing arts classes. During Rare Book Week and through March 28, see Warren Lehrer: Books, Animation, Performance, Collaboration, which presents the book artist's approach to visualizing poetry and prose in multi-branched projects through books, typography, animation, performance, and collaboration. Also on exhibit: "I open my eyes and see myself under a tree laden with fruit that I cannot name," in which the works of poet Sinan Antoon and artist Hadieh Shafie explore narrative-making practices of language, translation, and the mechanics of the written word.
Courtesy of Warren Lehrer and Dennis J. Bernstein.
