Rochester Public Library

The Art of the Book

The only time I’d previously been to the downtown Rochester library was a few years ago for a seminar, so I didn’t really know where I was going, but my brother, visiting for the holidays, was game to accompany me on this expedition. We parked at the Court Street garage, and crossed the street to the library building that overlooks the river. The Art of the Book exhibit was in the Lower Link Gallery, which we only realized later must be under South Avenue, connecting the Central Library and Bausch & Lomb Library buildings.

Macey Ley's "The Sky
is Surely Open"

David Gisele's "Anatomical Wonder"

The Art of the Book, which is apparently the 6^th Annual International Juried Exhibit, is a display of about 70 works of art by slightly fewer artists (several artists are, for some reason, represented by multiple works, including Macey Ley, one of whose won 1^st Place in the “Altered Books” category, even though none of her works is derived from or in any way resembles books). Notwithstanding an over-representation of local artists and under-representation of international artists (like, none), the exhibit is engaging and creative. My brother and I were both fascinated by Judy Schewe’s “Variation on a theme of Madama Butterfly”: a sculpture cleverly covered in the vocal score of Madama Butterfly. Another favorite was David Gieske’s 2^nd Place Altered Books creation – an “excavated book” titled “Anatomical Wonder” (we also liked his “New Land,” which appeared to be excavated from an old atlas – great repurpose!).

Judy Schewe's "Variation on a theme
of Madama Butterfly"

Some of the works, sadly, were poorly displayed in a cabinet with thick wooden-framed doors, so you couldn’t see them in their entirety. Others required you to sit on the floor to see them properly, which my brother did (I was content to squat momentarily). Several of the works reminded me of a page in We go to the gallery, a parody of the Dick & Jane books, when the boy remarks, “I could paint that,” and Mummy retorts, “But you didn’t.” It was an odd exhibition to be in the basement of the Rochester Library, but a fun one, and worth the trip downtown, especially when coupled with…

The Secret Room

Charlie’s nephew’s wife told me about this room at Christmas, and I was captivated by the story! According to the sign in the room, “in 1935 students and teachers at Theodore Roosevelt School #43 contacted the then-existing 69 countries of the world…. The students offered to send each country a Shirley Temple doll… in exchange for a doll dressed in the traditional clothing of that country.” The collection of about 170 dolls was given to the Rochester Public Library, and additions have brought the number to over 200. My second “wait, what?” was that there were only 69 countries less than a century ago, since there are currently 195 or 196, depending on whether Taiwan counts. My first one was what I thought after I asked the woman behind the desk in the Children’s section where the room was, and she slyly told me I’d have to find it myself, since it was, after all, a secret room. She did give us an unnecessary hint: that it had to be behind a solid wall, of which there was only one (the rest of the section has windows) and a useful warning: duck and stay down. 

Once in, we marveled at the breadth of the collection and the excellent condition of the dolls (since they’ve never been “loved”), and my favorite was a little boy from Italy, whose face had depths of expression not usually found on a doll. We had the room to ourselves until a real boy snuck in, confiding that he was hiding from his little sister. Unfortunately, our emergence gave him up, but not before even he remarked on how amazing the doll collection is. We got one final bonus:

Free Parking

Because I was disoriented by leaving a different building than we’d entered, I asked at the desk how to get back to the Court Street garage, and the woman must have thought I was an idiot, because it was right next door – you didn’t even have to go outside! But our conversation did net me a validated ticket – the library gives you your first two hours of parking free – who knew?

The Art of the Book runs until January 8.