Climate Change in Special Collections and Archives

The DePaul University Library celebrated National Library Week on April 9^th with activities focusing on some popular materials and offerings in the library, such as comics, games, vinyl records, and table-top role playing games. Special Collections and Archives created a companion pop-up exhibit focusing on pop-culture items from our collection such as games, artists books, and graphic novels. Ellin M. Kelly Interns Sarah Wilson and Kiara Ruiz curated the exhibit, and each wrote about a few items that piqued their interest and that may challenge preconceptions of “rare books.” The second installment of this two-part series is written by Kiara Ruiz.

While combing through our collections to find some of the most culturally relevant items, many clear social justice themes presented themselves. Special Collections is home to many books and community archives that touch on the topic of climate change. Artists’ books have become an increasingly important medium to represent topics such as climate change in a way that cannot be done with a traditional book structure. This pop-up featured several artists books that emphasized the creative ways in which climate change is represented within our collections.

Special Collections has a variety of games dating back to 1843. Though their formats are unique, the topics they cover represent SPCA’s collecting strengths – social justice, activism, cultural and political movements, etc. Winners & Losers: Dominoes & Lucky 15, created by Barbara Milman, broaches the topic of climate change. Lucky 15 and Dominoes may be games you have heard of and even played before. This version comes with a booklet of instructions that describes animal that appears on the cards, all of whom are affected by climate change. It also represents the reality that as temperatures rise, there will be both winners and losers within the animal kingdom. Some animals will thrive in hotter temperatures, while others will be unable to survive.

Biosphere, created by Ginger R. Burrell and inspired by Yōko Ono’s “Grapefruit”, is an artists’ book created in response to climate change. The book attempts to provoke the reader to act with thought-provoking sayings. It comes with four Biospheres in the form of wooden globes. Within the wooden globes there is a paper folded like an accordion that contains various phrases to inspire the reader to either think about their impact on climate change or to take action. This book also attempts to highlight the inequality of impact individual consumers have on the environment versus larger corporations. While the book does not excuse consumers, it also pokes fun at the fact that, for example, one person choosing to drive an electric car over a gas car will not solve the problem of climate change.

Vanishing Act, created by Barbara Milman in 2011, also tackles the topic of climate change, specifically the way climate change impacts life in the Arctic. This artists’ book takes on the more typical structure of a book with a cover and pages within, however it has a carousel structure instead of the typical spine binding. Vanishing Act demonstrates to the reader the harm that has already been done to wildlife in the Arctic as well as what could potentially happen as climate change worsens.

Merde sur la Mer is a one-of-a-kind artist book within our collection that is quite visually stimulating, but also extremely delicate and a bit intimidating to touch. The book’s title translates from French as “Shit on the sea”. This book is a commentary on the amount of pollution within our oceans and water systems around the world. The entire top of the book is lined with yarn that has different images of pollutants hanging down such as water bottles, tires, oil drums and much more.

While this post only describes four of the items that are housed in Special Collections with the theme of climate change, there are many more waiting for you to experience. If any of these interest you, or if you are curious about any more we may have, be sure to stop by!