Design Library Exhibits
Current Exhibit
(Upcoming) Participation and Contemporary Artists' Publications: In Art Historical Context. Fall 2021.
Fall 2021 Pop-Up Exhibits
View and handle a curated selection of works from the Design Library's Rare Books and Artists' Books Collections. Meet in the Design Library (200 Lawrence Hall). Drop-in event: come and go as you please.
The Built Environment: Urbanscapes + Architecture in Print. Wednesday, September 29, 2021 (11am-1pm). This exhibit will showcase both historic and contemporary works, including architecture plans, city guides, and artists' books. Highlights include an 1889 guide to the Eiffel Tower, Ed Ruscha's Every Building on the Sunset Strip, and the 1938 special issue of Architectural Forum designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.
Experiments: A Sampler of Artists' Books + Zine. Wednesday, October 13, 2021 (11am-1pm). The Design Library's Artists' Books Collection represents one of the most diverse parts of our collection in both form and content. This exhibit will introduce attendees to some particularly unusual "book" designs, as well as recent zine acquisitions. Included are works by Roni Horn, Julie Chen, Richard Prince, Caroline Paquita, Adrian Piper, and many more.
UO Legacies: Books + Designs by Alum. Friday, October 29, 2021 (11am-1pm). Student architectural models can be found throughout the library, but this pop-up exhibit will feature additional works from former UO courses in the College of Design (formerly the School of Architecture and Allied Arts), ranging from Letterpress to Advanced Architectural Design Studio.
Past Exhibits
Circa Surrealism: Foundations and Legacies in Print. Spring 2021. This exhibition provides a glimpse into the circuitous legacy of the Surrealists from 1930 to the recent past, including historical documents and contemporary artsts' books.
VOTE 2020: Exploring the Issues through the Artists' Books Collection. Fall 2020. Featuring select artists' books that address current events and key issues at the center of the 2020 presidential election.
Poetry in Artists' Books. Winter 2019. This exhibit explores artists' books as a delivery mechanism for poetry. Examples include collaborations between artists and poets, work based off of well-known poems, and the artist-poet hybrid. With content ranging from serious issues (violence, family relationships, and war protests) to fun (cats and found fruit), the exhibition demonstrates many ways that artists' books allow exploration of topics, form, and meaning.
Architectural Models. Fall 2016. Models created by students of Marion Dean Ross. Some models are currently on display throughout the library.
Carl Heilborn: Designs for Film. September-December 2014. Companion website. Featuring original watercolors by set designer, Carl Heilborn, UO graduate.
Color: A Magic Power. April-June 2013. Companion website. Featuring plates from Design Library's original edition of Josef Albers' Interaction of Color
Constance Fowler: The Days in and near Old Salem. January-March 2015. Companion site. From Design Library's collection, original wood engravings by Fowler for her 1940 UO thesis.
Curls, Cuts, Snags, and the Black Hole. March-June 2016. Companion website. Spring 2016. Featuring Design Library's artist's book which use hair.
Drawn to Design: Selections from the UO Architecture Student Drawings Collection. Knight Library, January-March 2014. Companion website. Featuring large-format historic UO architecture student drawings from the Design Library collections.
DeArmond MakerSpace at the Design Library. Fall 2018. Showcases items made in the Price Science Commons and Research Library's DeArmond MakerSpace.
Erich Mendelsohn: The Oregon Sketches. April-June 2014. Photo: Mendelsohn at the School of Architecture and Allied Arts, now the College of Design, January 1953. Featuring original drawings in the Design Library collections by Erich Mendelsohn created when the famous architect lectured at the UO.
Marion Dean Ross: The Legacy of a Scholar. Knight Library, January-April 2012. Companion website. Celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Ross endowment with models, writing, and rare books associated with scholar and benefactor M. D. Ross.
Picnic Time! Food and Artists' Books -- Summer 2014. A display of items about food in the Design Library collection.
Selections from the Wasmuth Portfolio. January-March 2014. Companion website. Featuring plates from Design Library's copy of the rare Frank Lloyd Wright's Ausgefuhte den Bauten
Spotlight on a Legacy: Treasures of the Architecture & Allied Arts Library . October 2014. Companion website. Open-house exhibit of Design Library's unique artifacts in commemoration of the School's 100th anniversary and the first Design Library librarian, Camilla Leach.
A Teahouse, a Wigwam, and the Sex Lives of Vegetables. September 2015-February 2016. Companion website. Featuring selections of Design Library holdings of artist's books, rare books, and student-made models.
Thirty-six Views of Mt. Fuji: Classic Woodblock Prints by Hokusai. May-August 2014; May-August 2017. Description. Prints by Hokusai from a rare book in Design Library.
Treasures of Design: Selections from the Special Collections of the Design Library. Fall 2017. Exhibit guide (pdf). In celebration of the renaming of the School of Architecture & Allied Arts to the College of Design, the Design Library begins the academic year with a showcase of works from its special collections.
You Must Never Look Away From This: An Artists' Books Selection Inspired by Between the World and Me. Winter 2017. Companion website. Explores themes from the Common Reading selection Between the World and Me by Te-Nehisi Coates including race, identity, privilege, education, diaspora, and family.