Rare Book Week Exhibitions

It's Rare Book Week 2018 in NYC. If you're visiting for the book fair this weekend, there are numerous fascinating exhibitions at a variety of institutions to check out while you're in town. For a guide to all that's on offer this week, be sure to bookmark our dedicated Rare Book Week site here.

Below are several exhibition highlights, split into a section for medievalists and a section for 20th century enthusiasts.

For medievalists:

1) The Codex and Crafts in Late Antiquity.

Location: Bard Graduate Center

Examines "the structural, technical, and decorative features of the major types of codices--the wooden tablet codex, the single-gathering codex, and the multigathering codex." On view through July 8.

2) Talking at the Court, on the Street, in the Bedroom: Vernacular Manuscripts of the Middle Ages

Location: Les Enluminures

Illuminated manuscript exhibition of 36 manuscripts that "provide viewers unique access to the authentic, spontaneous vision of people in medieval France, Italy, Germany, the Low Countries, and Britain." On view through March 16.

3) Now and Forever: The Art of Medieval Time

Illuminated manuscript exhibition that "explores how people told time in the Middle Ages and what they thought about it. The manuscripts range in date from the eleventh to the sixteenth centuries and come from all the major countries of Europe."

Location: The Morgan Library. On view through April 29.

For 20th century enthusiasts:

1) Tennessee Williams: No Refuge but Writing

Location: The Morgan Library

Exhibition that "reveals the playwright's creative process through original drafts, private diaries, photographs, and production stills." On view through May 13.

2) Hotbed

Location: New York Historical Society

"An installation of artifacts and images of bohemian life in Greenwich Village." On view through March 25.

3) Power in Print

Location: New York Public Library, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture

"Explores the art of the Black Power movement poster, showcasing a variety of aesthetics, styles, and messaging strategies." On view through March 31.

4) The New York World of Willa Cather

Location: New York Society Library

Exhibition highlights include 

• Charging cards listing the books checked out by Cather and her lifelong companion Edith Lewis during their twenty-year membership;
• an essay by Truman Capote describing his humorous meeting with Cather at the Library during a 1942 snowstorm

On view through: August 31