This exhibit in Schaffer Library was curated by student assistant Caitlin Williams’18 as a companion to the release of this website. With a focus on the three themes of the website (showcasing the library’s collection, celebrating Blake as a “maker,” and preserving and promoting student research and creativity), the exhibit features material from the library’s collections as well as its archive of student work to demonstrate the on-going relevance of print in a digital age. Like the website, the goal of the exhibit is to show how the advantages of digitization can be used to create a greater awareness of the library’s physical collection of works by Blake, draw researchers to it, and perpetuate conversations among students for years to come. It is also the occasion for a “Blake@Union” student prize competition to create additional material for the exhibit and website.
This exhibit in Schaffer Library showcased Blake’s illuminated books in a number of contexts. Facsimiles made by the Trianon Press were featured heavily; student essays in the accompanying catalog, often discuss how the choices of binding material or the format of the reproduction affected their encounter with Blake’s work. Each essay addresses the overall themes or imagery of the selected book, some in relation to other works by Blake. Facsimiles from the Manchester Workshop and Granary Books were also on display.
This exhibit in Schaffer Library featured a facsimiles of Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience in particular. Sample images from different publishers were displayed along with material from Blake scholar and printmaker Michael Phillips. Student essays in the catalog for this exhibit, available below, focus primarily on the printing techniques used by Blake himself as well as those making the various facsimiles.
This public event in the College Arts building welcomed “friends and guests” to a showcase of student creativity in response to Blake’s work, presented in the form of brief talks on a variety of subjects, dramatic readings, music, and other interpretive material. A program guide distributed at the event is available below. The Blake@Union website is designed to capture and preserve such events more fully in future.
To mark the launch of the Blake@Union project, students in all disciplines at Union College are invited to submit a response in any medium to the works of Blake. The competition is intended to celebrate student creativity and provides an opportunity for new student work to be featured on the Blake@Union website and in a concurrent onsite exhibit in the College library. Prizes will be awarded in each of two categories (arts/media and text). Student works of any length or format are welcome; the only requirement is that they interpret, respond to, or are otherwise inspired by something by or about Blake. See the full announcement below.
This lecture by Blake scholar and printmaker Michael Phillips was co-sponsored by the departments of English and Visual Arts. It was held in conjunction with the student-curated exhibit “William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience,” which explored various facsimiles of that work. A catalog of the student exhibit, to which Phillips contributed material, is available below.
This symposium and exhibition was sponsored jointly by Skidmore College and Union College. It brought speakers on Blake from research institutions across the east coast and included a workshop on Blake’s printing methods by Joseph Viscomi. A description of the program can be accessed below. An exhibition featuring original engravings by Blake, contemporary works, and Trianon Press facsimiles was held in conjunction with the two-day symposium and traveled from one institution to the other over a period of several months. The Friends of the Union College Library published a full catalog of the exhibition by Union College Professor of English James McCord.
A male figure with curly hair lies at the bottom of this plate from series B of There is No Natural Religion (1971 facsimile). His arms are rigid at his side, which indicates that he is either sleeping, dead, or in a trance. His head is lifted slightly compared to the rest of his body. Above his head, a faceless figure appears to stand with arms and one leg extended. Leaves and berries surround the number at the top of the plate. The text dominates the plate and makes a clear statement that “Reason or the ratio of all we have already known, is not the same that it shall be when we know more.”
This frontispiece is included with the Trianon Press Laocoon volume (1976 facsimile). It is described as “an enigmatic self-portrait” of Blake himself, “whose last testament is studied in this book. On his head is a Menorah, the ancient symbol of the Tree of Life and of spiritual insight.” Not available at the William Blake Archive. Consult the book in Schaffer Library for a detailed view of the image.
Blake includes various notes about his interpretation of the Laocoons sculpture in this engraving (1976 facsimile). He believed the sculpture to depict Jehovah and his two sons, Adam and Satan. Blake’s commentary that surrounds the human figures touches on many subjects, but themes of creativity, art, and the imagination abound in Blakean aphorisms such as “Without Unceasing Practise nothing can be done Practise is Art / If you leave off you are Lost.” “Prayer is the Study of Art Praise is the Practise of Art.” “Art can never exist without / Naked Beauty displayed.” “The Eternal Body of Man is the Imagination, that is God himself.”
This selection of reproductions of representative pages from Blake’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience is included in Geoffrey Keynes’ Study of the Illuminated Books, published by the Trianon Press in 1964. Unlike the representation of pages from The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, this selection consists of pages with no text other than the titles written on two of the pages. These images are rich in color but dark at the same time. The dark color that is being evoked in the images may relate to Keynes’ observation that the Songs of Experience in particular are a “summing up for Blake all the bitterness and disappointment of adult reality.” The choices of these images was likely done strategically, to show Blake’s style as an artist, instead of presenting bits of his writings out of context.
Not available in this form at the William Blake Archive; consult the book in the library for more information.
This selection of reproductions of representative pages from Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell is included in Geoffrey Keynes’ Study of the Illuminated Books, published by the Trianon Press in 1964. It is interesting to note that the reproductions showcased here emphasize Blake’s densely textual pages rather than his imagery alone. Keynes’ commentary explains that The Marriage of Heaven and Hell is possibly one of Blake’s most accessible works, which may also explain why Trianon chose to show pages with mostly words. The layout balances out the title page with pages of full text in opposite columns. It is a beautiful display of both Blake’s art and writings.
Not available in this form at the William Blake Archive; consult the book in the library for more information.
Description: Pages 60-61 from Palmer’s Sketchbook (1962 facsimile) are believed to show a judgment scene. They are part of a series of pages that are an exception to the rest of the sketchbook, which normally features scenes of nature. Instead, this series of pages has a clear religious context. It is interesting to think about these pages in relation to Blake’s own intimate connection to religion. Religious concepts were joined to perceptions of nature during the Romantic era, of which both Palmer and Blake were a part. Not available at the William Blake Archive. Consult the book in Schaffer Library for a detailed view of the image.