Previous exhibition

The Fisher Library's Judaica holdings span over 1000 years. This exhibition features items that were produced every century from the 10^th to the 21^st, including biblical manuscripts, works of Jewish law and liturgy, incunabula, rare Constantinople imprints, and much more. Highlights are the manuscript of the Zohar, which belonged to the famous false Messiah Shabbetai Tsevi, and a copy of Maimonides law code Mishneh Torah with Sabbatean markings. Another highlight is a facsimile of the Alba Bible, one of the most elaborate illuminated biblical manuscripts ever produced. The exhibition also features contemporary works by Jewish and Israeli artists and bookmakers.  A section devoted to Canadiana features one the earliest Canadian imprints, dating from 1752 as well as the first English translation of the Hebrew prayerbook (1770), among whose sponsors were the Canadian merchant Aaron Hart and his wife.

This exhibition is curated by Barry Walfish.

In June 1914, the assassination by Serbian nationalists in Sarajevo of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, triggered a series of events culminating less than five weeks later in the outbreak of the First World War. By war’s end, over fifteen million military and civilian lives had been lost, four empires destroyed, and the map of Europe redrawn. This exhibition focuses on the words and images of those who served in the Great War – individuals like Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, and Erich Maria Remarque; but also on that of writers born decades after 1918, such as Pat Barker, Sebastian Faulks, and Joseph Boyden. These perspectives, far removed from one another in time and personal experience, illustrate the continuing importance and extraordinary influence of a war that was fought one hundred years ago.

In 2014, we commemorated the five-hundreth anniversary of the birth of one of the great figures in the history of medicine. The fame and significance of Andreas Vesalius rest almost entirely on one book, his monumental De humani corporis fabrica, first published in 1543. The De fabrica (as it is commonly referred to), is chiefly celebrated for its splendid woodcut illustrations that introduced art to anatomy, and set the standard for all future anatomical illustration. The enduring significance of the illustrations is attested by the fact that they were still being copied and imitated two hundred years after their first appearance.  In addition to its illustrations, De fabrica is also a vitally important text, universally regarded as the cornerstone for the study and teaching of human anatomy. Vesalius presented anatomical knowledge from the standpoint of direct and accurate observation, that was a considerable advance on what had gone before. He also introduced a new approach and methodology for the teaching of anatomy, and provided a manual on dissection. The beautifully rendered woodcuts blend elegantly with the printed text, resulting in a masterpiece of the printer’s art - the perfect marriage of text and illustration. De fabrica is without doubt one of the splendours of Renaissance scientific book making.

This exhibition draws on the extensive and diverse holdings relating to the War effort in the University of Toronto Archives, the wider University library system, and elsewhere on campus.  It focuses on how the University prepared for and carried out its duties during the war and on the impact of the war on the University’s faculty, staff, students, its physical plant, its academic and research programmes, and on student and other organizations.  The material on display will include correspondence, diaries, official documents, photographs, posters, maps, and a wide range of publications and artifacts. This exhibition is curated by Harold Averill, Marnee Gamble and Loryl MacDonald of the University of Toronto Archives and Records Management Services.

This was the first major exhibition in North America on George Barbier, one of the great French illustrators of the early 20th century. It featured the extensive Toronto holdings of Barbier’s published illustrations drawn from the collections of the Library & Archives at the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto Public Library Special Collections, and the George Grant Collection at the Fisher Library. The exhibition is curated by ROM librarian Arthur Smith, who became fascinated with Barbier pochoirs in the mid-1990s when he encountered a volume of Falbalas et fanfreluches while mounting a display of treasures from the ROM’s rare book collections.

This exhibition explores some of the finest examples of the book-making craft since the year 2000, along with a quick nod of the small press’s past.  It draws upon the Fisher Library’s rich and extensive small and fine press holdings, and features examples from publishers spanning the entire country: from Mission, BC’s Barbarian Press to Gaspereau Press in Kentville, Nova Scotia. It highlights the "veterans" of the small press scene, including The Aliquando Press and Porcupine’s Quill, as well as artist books and illustrated works from some of this country’s leading practioners of the book arts. This exhibit is curated by the Fisher Library’s John Shoesmith.

Since the earliest known works of literature three-thousand years ago, the vision for a better society, an ideal society, has driven and inspired cultures to improve their social conditions. These visions were written around themes of voyage and discovery, the classical age, and medieval Christianity, that culminated in Thomas More’s Utopia in 1516. Since More’s vision of the imaginary society on the island of Utopia, writers have envisioned practical societies that transform our economic, political, technological, and cultural infrastructures taking us to uncharted lands, distant planets, and unimaginable futures that challenge and alter our society’s foundations. These utopian, and sometimes dystopian, visions show us what our society could be like and how we could achieve it, for better or for worse. This exhibition will showcase a selection of these utopian and dystopian visions ranging from Plato’s Republic and Augustine’s City of God to Francis Bacon’sNew Atlantis and Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe to H. G. Wells's War of the Worlds and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. Curated by Chris J. Young.

ISBN 978-0-7727-6109-5; 122 pages, $25 | Ref. #7061

The John H. Meier, Jr. Governor General’s Literary Award Fiction Collection is the largest and most comprehensive of its kind in the world. The collection consists of five hundred volumes, including various issues of the Canadian, American, British, Australian first trade editions, galleys, uncorrected proofs, trial dust jackets, advance review copies, association copies, author copies, letters and ephemera. John Meier started his collection in  late 1999. When he decided to begin his collection, in late 1999, he became serious about purchasing the best copies available, which involved several road trips across the country.

This exhibit is also a celebration: it was 75 years ago, on November 24, 1937, that the first Governor General’s Awards were presented by Lord Tweedsmuir (John Buchan). The ceremony was held a short walk from the Fisher Library, at the University of Toronto’s Convocation Hall. Most of this country’s leading writers have been honoured with the GG, from Hugh MacLennan to Morley Callaghan to Michael Ondaatje, and through to Margaret Laurence, Alice Munro and Margaret Atwood.

Drawing on the rich printed and manuscript resources of the Fisher Library, this exhibition approaches horticultural history from the particular viewpoint of how people learn to cultivate plants – both historically and as individual gardeners today – and is divided into three main sections:

(1) learning from the written word, beginning with the teachings of antiquity and moving on through five centuries of printed knowledge as recorded in books, periodicals and now online sources

(2) learning from observing plants, in the wild, in public and private gardens and in botanical gardens and commercial nurseries

(3) learning from our own experience as gardeners, as documented in the personal records of individual gardeners in their own plant lists, diaries and garden journals, and blogs.

While the main focus is on historical material each of these sections will also make reference to modern examples, both British and Canadian, thereby demonstrating that all these modes of learning are as relevant today as they were in the past, and all have as their basis the love of plants and the universal human pleasure we take from them.

Exhibition and accompanying catalogue by Anne Dondertman, Acting Director of the Fisher Library.