Animals
The Book of the British Library Exhibition
Artworks, manuscripts, printed works and wildlife sound recordings come together in this major compendium of the greatest and strangest representations of animals on record.
Eighty detailed case studies highlight celebrated works, including John James Audubon’s The Birds of America, Matthew Paris’s Liber additamentorum, Maria Sibylla Merian’s Metamorphosis (1705), Mark Catesby’s The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands, as well as letters from Charles Darwin, the Baburnama, translated by Mīrzā ‘Abd al-Rahīm Khān, Japanese printed works by Hirase Yoichirō (1914–1915), Arabic hippiatric texts and the work of contemporary artists including Levon Biss and Jethro Buck.
Rich, newly photographed, illustrations bring these works to life, while interactive QR technology will allow readers to listen to recordings of the sound exhibits as they read. Expertly edited, this powerful collection of objects prompt us to consider the increasing importance of technology and data to our understanding of humanity’s impact on the world’s faunal inhabitants.
Malini Roy is Head of Visual Arts, Asian and African Collections, Cam Sharp Jones is Curator of Visual Arts, Asian and African Collections, and Cheryl Tipp **
