{"id":783,"date":"2025-01-22T21:32:42","date_gmt":"2025-01-22T21:32:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/gallery\/?p=783"},"modified":"2025-01-22T21:32:43","modified_gmt":"2025-01-22T21:32:43","slug":"a-roll-of-the-dice-new-main-library-gallery-exhibit-explores-one-poems-worldwide-influence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/gallery\/2025\/01\/22\/a-roll-of-the-dice-new-main-library-gallery-exhibit-explores-one-poems-worldwide-influence\/","title":{"rendered":"A Roll of the Dice: new Main Library Gallery exhibit explores one poem’s worldwide influence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Main Library Gallery<\/a>\u2019s spring 2025 exhibition, A Roll of the Dice: Symbolism in the Sackner Archive<\/a><\/em>, highlights a series of captivating artworks from the Ruth and Marvin Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry<\/a>. From laser-etched plexiglass panels hanging from the ceiling to a knit sweater with real dice for buttons, the artworks cover a wide variety of mediums and tell the story of how one of the world\u2019s most revolutionary poems has influenced art and design over the last 128 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Free and open to the public, this exhibition opened on Jan. 21 and will be open through June 27. It was curated by Rich Dana, Sackner Archive project coordinator librarian in Special Collections and Archives<\/a> at the University of Iowa Libraries. Displaying everything from sculptural works to book art, A Roll of the Dice<\/em> offers a look into the world of concrete poetry and the avant-garde through the lens of one influential poem by French Symbolist poet St\u00e9phane Mallarm\u00e9: \u201cUn coup de d\u00e9s jamais n\u2019abolira le hasard,\u201d or \u201cA throw of the dice will never abolish chance.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Curator Rich Dana in the Main Library Gallery, University of Iowa Libraries. (Photo: Krista Hershberger)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ruth and Marvin Sackner, who donated their exceptional collection of over 75,000 objects to the University of Iowa Libraries in 2019, recognized that Mallarm\u00e9\u2019s poem was an important literary and artistic milestone. Over the decades, they collected a series of objects for their overall collection that were inspired by this work. While caring for the collection at the UI Libraries, Dana discovered this assortment of materials related to \u201cUn coup de d\u00e9s\u201d and began investigating the trend. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI kept coming across works that paid homage to Mallarm\u00e9\u2019s poem,\u201d says Dana. \u201cBut the big ‘aha!’ moment was when I discovered an article that Ruth Sackner wrote in 1986<\/a>. The Sackners understood that this poem was key to the development of visual poetry, and an influence on so many aspects of our modern visual vocabulary.”\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Limits of My Language Are the Limits of My World<\/em> (1999), by Tom Phillips. Ruth and Marvin Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry, University of Iowa Libraries Special Collections and Archives. (Photo: Anne Bassett)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The exhibition aims to make the concepts of concrete and visual poetry easy for students and community members to connect with. Regardless of visitors\u2019 experience with art history, they will have the opportunity to learn all while experiencing unique creative works up close. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor everyone who visits the exhibit, there will be works they enjoy and relate to, and others that will challenge them,\u201d says Dana. \u201cThe show invites viewers to think abstractly and to look for the meaning inside themselves. Ruth and Marvin loved sharing their archive with visitors and friends. I’ve done my best to channel their spirit\u2014to create something that feeds the imagination, invites conversation, and inspires community.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learn more about the exhibition and the Main Library Gallery\u2019s open hours at lib.uiowa.edu\/gallery<\/a>.<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Main Library Gallery\u2019s spring 2025 exhibition, A Roll of the Dice: Symbolism in the Sackner Archive, highlights a series of captivating artworks from the Ruth and Marvin Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry. From laser-etched plexiglass panels hanging from the ceiling to a knit sweater with real dice for buttons, the artworks coverContinue reading “A Roll of the Dice: new Main Library Gallery exhibit explores one poem’s worldwide influence”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":272,"featured_media":786,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[22,3,2],"syndication":[4,5],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/gallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/gallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/gallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/gallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/272"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/gallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=783"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/gallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":787,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/gallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783\/revisions\/787"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/gallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/gallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/gallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/gallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=783"},{"taxonomy":"syndication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/gallery\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/syndication?post=783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}