Johns Hopkins University
Sheridan Libraries

WOMEN OF THE BOOK exhibition design

Johns Hopkins University
Sheridan Libraries

WOMEN OF THE BOOK exhibition design

Johns Hopkins University
Sheridan Libraries

WOMEN OF THE BOOK exhibition design

The exhibition includes approximately 100 rare books, manuscripts, and ephemera from Johns Hopkins University’s Women of the Book Collection. It brings to life the incredible work and lives of some of the extraordinary nuns living during the Renaissance—from psycho-spiritual autobiographers, bilocating nuns, rockstar status saints, ecstatic mystics, and female healers, to the hidden careers of women printers and engravers and miracle makers. The exhibit paints the world of these thoroughly modern holy women in living color.

We designed the exhibition and created invitation materials, interior and exterior banners, and object and case labels. We used the upper gallery walls to showcase large scale compiled images of some of the earliest imprints of ecclesiastical habits. We designed part of the gallery space as a semi-enclosed display area reminiscent of the small enclosure of a nun’s cell, where a replica of an original bound collection of 104 elaborate entries was displayed. Photographs of the installation were taken by Will Kirk.

The exhibition includes approximately 100 rare books, manuscripts, and ephemera from Johns Hopkins University’s Women of the Book Collection. It brings to life the incredible work and lives of some of the extraordinary nuns living during the Renaissance—from psycho-spiritual autobiographers, bilocating nuns, rockstar status saints, ecstatic mystics, and female healers, to the hidden careers of women printers and engravers and miracle makers. The exhibit paints the world of these thoroughly modern holy women in living color.

We designed the exhibition and created invitation materials, interior and exterior banners, and object and case labels. We used the upper gallery walls to showcase large scale compiled images of some of the earliest imprints of ecclesiastical habits. We designed part of the gallery space as a semi-enclosed display area reminiscent of the small enclosure of a nun’s cell, where a replica of an original bound collection of 104 elaborate entries was displayed. Photographs of the installation were taken by Will Kirk.