“Beauties of My Style”: Errata and the Printed Mistake

About

“Beauties of My Style” will be on view at the Hanke Gallery within Sterling Memorial Library from March 30 - Nov. 29.

Errors have always been part of bookmaking, but with the arrival of the printing press, they became formally acknowledged through the device of the errata list. From the late fifteenth century onward, printers and authors compiled lists of “faults escaped” or “errors committed,” often with justifications and apologies, which were added to books as either tipped-in slips or additional sheets at the end. “‘Beauties of My Style’: Errata and the Printed Mistake” surveys errata alongside their companion texts from across nearly half a millennium, chronicling themes of censorship, misrepresentation, intervention, and instability tied to the written word.

The title of the exhibition derives from a statement by James Joyce, written shortly before the release of Ulysses: “These are not misprints but beauties of my style hitherto undreamt of.” The exhibition, which is organized thematically, encompasses thousands of these “beauties” across approximately 30 works, ranging from maps with inaccurate geographies and details, to religious texts in which typographic errors were seized upon as proof of heresy, to mid-run book corrections reflecting textual variations within one edition.

Curators: Rachel Churner, lecturer in Visual Studies, New School, and director of the Carolee Schneemann Foundation; Geoff Kaplan, lecturer in Graphic Design, Yale School of Art, and founder of General Working Group. The curators are also co-founders of no place press.

Join us for the curators’ tour and opening reception of the exhibition on Thurs., April 23, from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. in Sterling Memorial Library. The event is free and open to the public.