PAPER BRAINS is an exhibition curated by Danne Ojeda in collaboration with Lisa Kuitert (Book and Manuscript Studies) and the Special Collections Library, University of Amsterdam.
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Practice as research
The exhibition draws from Ojeda’s research for her creative practice on how human brains have been visualized throughout the history of books, as well as her professional creative practice in editorial and exhibition design.
In creative arts, ‘practice as research’ might manifest by expanding beyond the scrutiny of library resources, or the reading of textual references, to a proactive engagement with the work of other writers, authors, and their consequent creative objects. Thus, Paper Brains creates a dialogical scenario with the audience and the diverse voices that inhabit the space via bibliographic visual citations in the exhibition space. In doing so, it also contextualizes historical books that have represented human brains, while becoming an innovative interactive exhibition-installation in the form of a book page in space.
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Creative work ‘Vanitas’
The creative work derived from this research is Vanitas book series.

PAPER BRAINS.
One of the most recurrent metaphors about books is that they are journeys across authors’ brains. Conversely, the exhibition Paper Brains  is a gaze at different reproductions, ‘dissections’, and artistic interpretations of selected brain re-presentations. It approaches the question of how the human brain has been represented as a subject of study throughout different epochs in prints and books. The exhibition hints at the multiplicity of ‘readings’ of the brain from scientific and artistic perspectives.

Largely based on the archive of the Special Collections Library, University of Amsterdam,  Paper Brains showcases a visual continuum  about how human brains have been layered down and printed on book pages. The exhibition includes reproductions made by Andreas Vesalius, whose seminal work De humani corporis fabric  (Basel, 1543) defined the Renaissance’s groundbreaking representation of comprehensive anatomical structures through illustrations and prints. The display extends up to recent Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), a sequence-scanning technique that segments the brain for clinical diagnosis. 

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Exhibition assistance
Szilvia Mondel
Eline Kortekaas

Exhibition design 
Danne Ojeda, d-file studio

Photography
Stefanie Archer

Supported by
Book and Manuscript Studies department,
Faculty of Humanities, University of Amsterdam
School of Art, Design and Media, 
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
 
Acknowledgments
Agaath Homminga
Ihab Saloul
Georges Petitjean
Noelia Vega Guerra
Poh Chueh Loo
Tan Cher Heng
Rubén de la Nuez
Gerald Chin
Freek Kuin
Loes Kops
Rhea Palisoc Caburnay
Christa-Maria Lerm-Hayes
Annika Rulkens
Annemarie Maenen
Riwi ColloType

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Exhibition dates
22. 06 – 17. 07. 2017 

Place
Book & Manuscript Studies
Turfdraagsterpad 15 – 17, 1012 XT
Amsterdam, University of Amsterdam (UvA)
The Netherlands