"Keeps its finger on the pulse of the rare book world" - William Reese

The British Library’s major exhibition, ‘Breaking the Rules:The Printed Face of the  European Avant Garde 1900-1937’ explores the creative transformation which took place in Europe during the first four decades of the 20th century – a revolution which encompassed visual art, design, photography, literature, theatre, music and architecture. Each style is traditionally regarded as a movement in itself but for the first time they are brought together to explore common themes and the creative transformation which took place at the time as well its continuing impact on contemporary culture.

Traditionally associated with Paris or Berlin, ‘Breaking the Rules’ explores the rapid exchange of ideas that ease of train travel around Europe made possible. This movement of people led to the presence of the Avant Garde in many European cities - London, Brussels, Munich, Zurich, Vienna, Florence, Milan, Rome, Barcelona, Madrid, Copenhagen, Warsaw, Kracow, Prague, St Petersburg, Moscow, Kharkiv, Kyiv,Tbilisi, Belgrade,Bucharest and Budapest.  

The Avant Garde was characterised by its exploitation of the printed medium and  ‘Breaking the Rules’ draws upon the British Library’s unrivalled collections of artists’ books, manifestos, little magazines, photobooks, literary manuscripts, sound recordings, and posters from across Europe, complemented with loans from other European museums and collections.

 Star items include Marinetti’s futurist experiment with words, type and visual text, Zang Tumb Tuum, the Burliuk Brothers Tango with Cows, the notebooks and corrected proofs of James Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake, the earliest known recording of T.S. Eliot reading The Waste Land, recorded at Columbia University in 1933 and never commercially published and excerpts from a British Library oral history interview with poet David Gascoyne in which Gascoyne recalls his experiences of the Surrealist group in Paris in 1935. Gascoyne’s manuscript journal will also be on display.

The exhibition will be on from 9  November 2007- 30  March 2008 in the Pearson Gallery, British Library. Admission is Free. See www.bl.uk for more information.