FALL 2005 EVENTS

“Bibles: Eight Centuries of Treasures from the Smith College Libraries”
Thursday, October 27th 2005, 4.30 p.m., Neilson Library Browsing Room.

Professor Mark Morford will give an illustrated talk about the Mortimer Rare Book Room’s remarkable collection of manuscript and printed bibles. These range from a thirteenth-century bible written in Germany to the splendid bible designed and illustrated by Barry Moser and printed in 1997. Some seventy of these bibles, and about thirty Greek New Testaments, are treasures. They include almost a complete series of printed bibles from Gutenberg’s bible of the 1450s to Barry Moser’s bible. Professor Morford is Emeritus Professor of Classics at the University of Virginia and is currently the Salloch Fellow in the Mortimer Room. He was Kennedy Professor of Renaissance Studies at Smith College in 1995. PRESENTED BY THE FRIENDS OF THE SMITH COLLEGE LIBARIES.

Professor Mark Morford at work in the Mortimer Rare Book Room

Gallery Talk and Opening Reception
“Artist’s Books by Anne Walker: 30-Year Retrospective”
Tuesday, November 8 2005, 4:00 p.m., Book Arts Gallery

Anne Walker's Morning Notebook

Anne Walker '55 is a printmaker and painter who has lived in Paris since 1956. Much of her work is concerned with the language of color and is characterized by a lyricism — sometimes playful, sometimes elegiac — that pairs well with literature. Thus, since the 1980s she has been exploring the format of the artist's book, which has allowed her to collaborate with poets and writers — Michel Butor, Kenneth Koch, and Peter Davison, to name a few. The exhibition features 32 of these gorgeous bookworks that have been likened to poetic jewel boxes, which she donated to the Mortimer Rare Book Room on the occasion of her 50th college reunion. The exhibition will continue through February 2006. Sponsored by the Mortimer Rare Book Room.

Opening Reception with the Artist,
“Paper, Bone, Vellum, Stone: Bookworks by Susan Barron”
Thursday, September 29 2005, 4:00-6:00 p.m., Book Arts Gallery, Neilson Library, Level 3

Susan Barron makes collages, drawings, etchings, and other ink prints, as well as photographs. She transforms some of this material into books. In her art, Barron explores language and its relationship to music, to image, and to the natural world; words, pictures, and all sorts of materials are dissociated from their ordinary contexts and recombined. John Russell of the New York Times has observed that her photographs “seem rather to have been breathed onto the paper than printed … the varied ingredients seem, in fact, to have drifted together on their own accord, and what they say comes to us in a whisper.” The exhibition in the Mortimer Rare Book Room and the Book Arts Gallery on Level 3 of the Neilson Library can be viewed from September 6 through October 28. Sponsored by the Mortimer Rare Book Room.

A page from Susan Barron's Senza Ancora (1999)

“Mary Wollstonecraft's America”
Friday, October 7 2005, 4:30 p.m., Neilson Library Browsing Room.

Mary Wollstonecraft, Feminist

Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) is remembered as a pioneer in education and author of the classic feminist text A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. In this lecture Dr. Lyndall Gordon will discuss a previously unexplored dimension of Wollstonecraft’s life, i.e. what America meant to Mary Wollstonecraft, the characters in her American circle, and the strong responses of John and Abigail Adams to her writings. Dr. Gordon is a senior fellow at St. Hilda’s College, Oxford, and is the acclaimed biographer of T.S. Eliot, Henry James, Charlotte Brontë and Virginia Woolf. Her latest work is titled Vindication: A Life of Mary Wollstonecraft (HarperCollins, 2005).

PRESENTED BY THE FRIENDS OF THE SMITH COLLEGE LIBARIES.

Shirley Jones Presentation
Thursday, October 13 2005, 3:00 p.m., Mortimer Rare Book Room

Printer, artist, author, and translator Shirley Jones will give a presentation of her artist’s books. From her studio in Wales, Shirley Jones publishes her etchings and mezzotints which she uses to complement her poems, prose pieces, and translations from Old English and Old Welsh. These are then set and printed letterpress in editions limited to about 40 under the imprint of the Red Hen Press. Each of her books is a total concept, the choice of paper and typeface, the unity of text and images, the harmony of the binding is as carefully considered as the visual and literary creativity involved. Her work has received considerable critical acclaim and is now collected by rare book libraries and private collectors internationally. She has lectured extensively at colleges and universities and art institutes. Sponsored by the Mortimer Rare Book Room. Seating for this event is limited so please RSVP by calling (413) 585-2906 or sending an email to bblument@smith.edu.

SPRING 2005 EVENTS

“Fingers in Pages: How to Read a Renaissance Book”
Thursday, March 24, 2005 at 4:30 p.m., Neilson Browsing Room.

Peter Stallybrass

A noted authority on the history of the book, Peter Stallybrass is Annenberg Professor of the Humanities at the University of Pennsylvania where he directs the seminar on the History of Material Texts and co-directs the Penn Humanities Forum. Stallybrass is currently working a material history of reading and writing in early modern Europe for which he received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2004. He received the James Russell Lowel Prize from the Modern Language Association in 2001 for his book, Renaissance Clothing and the Materials of Memory (Cambridge University Press, 2000), co-authored with Ann Rosalind Jones, Esther Cloudman Dunn Professor of Comparative Literature, Smith College. Also see accompanying exhibition by artisit Peter Kitchell.

“Drawing a Line, Walking a Wire”
Thursday, March 31 2005, 7:30 p.m., Weinstein Auditorium.

Well known children's book author and illustrator Mordicai Gerstein, who won the Caldecott Medal in 2004 for his book, The Man Who Walked Between the Towers, will appear with French high wire artist and author Philippe Petit, the man who walked and danced on a wire a quarter of a mile high between the towers of the World Trade Center in 1974. Both men are wonderful storytellers, and together bring back the magic of Philippe's amazing feat. Mordicai Gerstein began working on his uplifting tribute to the twin towers on September 11, 2001. Philippe Petit recounts his adventure in To Reach the Clouds; My High Wire Walk between the Twin Towers. He has since performed on the high wire more than 80 times around the world. A book signing and reception will follow. For more information about these men and their books, visit http://www.mordicaigerstein.com/, and http://www.fsgbooks.com/fsg/toreachclouds.htm

The Man Who Walked Between the Towers, by Mordicai Gerstein

FSCL Commencement Reception
Saturday, May 14, at 2:30 P.M., Mortimer Rare Book Room.
This annual event honors graduating seniors who have worked in the libraries, and welcomes returning alumnae and their guests.

Special Collections Tour
Saturday, May 21, at 2:00 P.M., meets at the Neilson Library Circulation Desk.
As part of reunion weekend activities, the Friends will host a tour of the Mortimer Rare Book Room, the Smith College Archives and the Sophia Smith Collection. This is a special opportunity to learn about the collections and view artifacts and exhibits. A reception will follow in the Alumnae Gymnasium, Level A at 3:30 P.M.

2004 Events

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