On view September 7 – November 9, 2017
Closing reception Saturday, November 4, 6-8 p.m.
The invention of the printing press and moveable type completely revolutionized information dissemination in the 16th century, and allowed Martin Luther’s ideas to be widely communicated through printed propaganda. In celebration of the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, the William Rolland Gallery is pleased to present Lisa Anne Auerbach’s The Tract House, an exhibit that celebrates the life and power of paper pamphlets, leaflets, and tracts.
The Tract House was founded in 2008 as a spread-the-word project inspired by the distribution model and graphic quality of religious tracts, and first displayed at the Contemporary Museum in Baltimore. The Tract House: A Darwin Addition was commissioned by the American Philosophical Society (APS) Museum as part of the city-wide graphic arts festival Philagrafika in 2010. As described by designer Roman Jaster, “the tracts were written by friends, neighbors, acquaintances, visitors to [the] website, and friends of friends. While most popular tracts are religious, The Tract House tracts can be nearly anything–manifestos, diatribes, stories, rants, poems, or lyrics… It is hoped that the tracts will educate, activate, infuriate, obfuscate, titillate, inspire, upset, and irritate.” Visitors are welcome to peruse and take any tracts they find of interest.
The Tract House is a project by Lisa Anne Auerbach with graphic design by Roman Jaster. The latter website contains tracts that website visitors may print from their home computer free of charge. Additional events on campus that relate to 500 Years of Reformation can be found here.
