Exhibit: Arts of the Book in Asia

Photograph of Exhibit

From palm-leaf manuscripts to Chinese handscrolls and Islamic codices, books have long served as vehicles of religious, cultural, and artistic expression in Asia. Owing both to their portability and status as vehicles of knowledge, books have acted as agents of exchange in the continent for centuries, spreading written language from China to Japan, esoteric Buddhism from India to Southeast Asia, and Islamic arts of calligraphy and illumination from the Middle East to South Asia.

Each student from Prof. Murad Mumtaz’ Art History / Asian Studies 273 course selected an object from the Chapin Library collections to research and exhibit. Their curatorial work helped identify and contextualize these objects, many of which are now being exhibited for the first time. Visit the exhibit, on view through midsummer, in the Special Collections Instruction Gallery (Sawyer 408).