Cabinet of Curiosities Mark Dion and the University as Installation Colleen J. Sheehy Table of Contents		$29.95 Paper ISBN: 0-8166-4470-5 ISBN-13: 978-0-8166-4470-4
Mark Dion digs into the University of Minnesota. The richly illustrated essays in Cabinet of Curiosities records the creative processes behind an installation designed by contemporary artist Mark Dion at the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum at the University of Minnesota, a collaboration of museum staff, students, and collection curators. Drawing from university collections, Dion and the curators chose seven hundred objects representative of the state’s history, ranging from a Bierstadt painting of Minnehaha Falls to Hubert Humphrey memorabilia, as well as objects that would have fascinated Renaissance viewers—such as mirrors and the world’s smallest plant—and arranged them into categories typical of Renaissance inquiry, such as the Underworld, the Sea, Humankind, and the Library. Together, the cabinets represented the university in miniature, just as their Renaissance precursors had attempted to represent microcosms of the world. Cabinet of Curiosities offers commentary on the ways in which collecting has undergirded the creation of knowledge within universities and in Western society. “The book does a good job of getting at an elusive exhibition. This is an important book as the role of 'art science' as analogous to 'information science' is aesthetically and functionally key, yet completely beneath the radar of most cultural scenes. Well designed and illustrated. Recommended.” —Choice “Cabinet of Curiosities is part exhibition catalogue and part free-standing book, and is first-rate at both. Whether or not you saw the exhibition, you will want to read this book. The book is well-written and never pedantic. The book is meant to be read and to inspire.” —Goldstein Museum of Design Colleen J. Sheehy is director of education at the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum and associate faculty in American studies and art history at the University of Minnesota. She is the author of Theatre of Wonder. Published in cooperation with the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum 128 pages | 46 halftones, 44 color photos | 8 x 10 | 2006 TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface Lyndel King Acknowledgements Introduction: Restaging the Cabinet of Curiosities Colleen J. Sheehy Contemporary Museums and the Cabinet of Curiosities A Walrus Head in the Art Museum: Mark Dion Digs into the University of Minnesota Colleen J. Sheehy A Conversation with Mark Dion Bill Horrigan Curiosity Cabinets, Museums, and Universities Bruce Robertson Essays by Student Curators of Cabinet of Curiosities The Bezoar Objects and Facts Cabinet of Humankind: Creating and Questioning Values Curator of the Air The Cabinet of the Library or Archive Exploring the Universe Within the University The Cabinet of Curiosities Checklist of the Exhibition University of Minnesota Collections University of Minnesota Herbarium / Bell Museum of Natural History The University of Minnesota Insect Collection The Veterinary Anatomy Museum The Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies The Children’s Literature Research Collections Department of Special Collections and Rare Books The Collections of the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum The Collections of the Newton Horace Winchell School of Earth Science Natural History Art Collection, Bell Museum of Natural History The Archie Givens, Sr. Collection of African American Literature The Jane Goodall Institute’s Center for Primate Studies at the University of Minnesota The Humphrey Forum The Goldstein Museum of Design The Fish, Amphibian, and Reptile Collections of the Bell Museum of Natural History The Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection in Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies Ornithological Collections/James Ford Bell Museum of Natural History