Exhibition Recreates Alice’s Wonderland in Sheffield
30th June 2010 to 29th September 2010
Western Bank Library
Start Time: 9:00am
End Time: 6:00pm
Additional Information: 10am to 7pm on Fridays, and 12noon to 6pm on Saturdays.
A selection of Mervyn Peake’s original illustrations from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland will be on display in a new exhibition to be staged at the University of Sheffield’s Western Bank Library.
The collection was recently acquired by the British Library and will be exhibited in Sheffield to coincide with playwright Laura Wade’s new adaptation of Alice at the Crucible Theatre.
The exhibition, which has been curated by Professor Vanessa Toulmin and Karen Middlemast from the University of Sheffield’s Library, will exclusively showcase original drawings and unpublished sketches which will be displayed for the first time since the British Library acquired the collection.
It will include 22 pen and ink drawings and 5 preliminary sketches by Mervyn Peake, best known as the author of Gormenghast for which he won the Heinemann Prize for Literature in 1951.
The collection forms part of a wider archive of Mervyn Peake which was acquired by the British Library in 2010, with support from The Art Fund, Friends of the British Library, Friends of the National Libraries and individual donors. Dating from 1940 through to his death in 1968, the archive represents the majority of Peake's literary output and contains a significant amount of unpublished material.
Whilst retaining the whimsical spirit of the books, Mervyn Peake’s interpretations of the characters in the Alice books are seen as generally darker than illustrations by previous artists.
Pricing
FREE
Venue
Western Bank Library
University of Sheffield
Western Bank
Sheffield
S10 2TN
Phone: 0114 222 7200
