Ground Floor Gallery
After Words: Visual and Experimental Poetry in Little Magazines and Small Presses, Post-1960
April 23 – July 26, 2025
Poetry underwent a profound re-conception post-World War II, as poets experimented not only with techniques such as projective verse, but also with the verbal and visual qualities of poetic language. Known variously as visual, concrete, and sound poetry, these practices reached new heights of innovation in the 1960s and beyond sustained by the mimeograph revolution and the proliferation of small independent presses. After Words: Visual and Experimental Poetry in Little Magazines and Small Presses, Post-1960, curated by Steve Clay and Grolier Club member M.C. Kinniburgh, explores the decentering and re-imagining of language from the perspective of visual poetics, and the varieties of ways these ideas took published form. The exhibition presents a wide range of international works with approximately 150 publications, including Assembling, Kontexts, Poor.Old.Tired.Horse., blewointment, Rhinozeros, The Marrahwanna Quarterly, Granary Books, Something Else Press, Edition Hansjörg Mayer, Ou, and Stereo Headphones. Poets presented include Cecilia Vicuña, bpNichol, Johanna Drucker, Tom Phillips, Emily McVarish, d.a. levy, Mirtha Dermisache, and Philip Gallo among many others. An accompanying catalog will be published by Granary Books.
Photo Credit: Journeyman, no. 12. Courtesy of Granary Books.
Second Floor Gallery
Wish You Were Here: Guidebooks, Viewbooks, Photobooks, and Maps of New York City, 1807-1940
March 6 – May 10, 2025
Wish You Were Here: Guidebooks, Viewbooks, Photobooks, and Maps of New York City, 1807-1940 will illustrate how New York City developed and was depicted in images for visitors and residents. Curated by Grolier Club member Mark D. Tomasko from his collection, the exhibition features more than 130 objects, including guidebooks, viewbooks, photobooks, maps, and pamphlets. Guidebooks on view trace the growth of the city, including Dr. Mitchill’s Picture of New York (1807, the first guide to New York City), as well as specialty guidebooks and viewbooks, such as for the new Central Park, Ellis Island, speakeasies, restaurants, and skyscrapers. Street panoramas on view, such as Both Sides of Broadway (1910) and Fifth Avenue from Start to Finish (1911), show every building on those streets in detail, and featured photobooks include Bernice Abbott’s Changing New York (1939), and E. Idell Zeisloft’s The New Metropolis (1899) that celebrates the 1898 Consolidation of the City. An accompanying book will be published by the Grolier Club.
Photo: King’s Views of New York, 1908-1909. Drawing by Harry M. Petit. From the collection of Mark D. Tomasko