Kleine artige Kupfer (or “small elegant copperplates”), taken from an eighteenth-century German review of an illustrated edition of a literary work, fittingly identifies this exhibition’s focus while also highlighting the importance of book illustration for the study of eighteenth-century literature. Traditionally ignored in favour of the typographic text, book illustration nevertheless featured centrally in the production, dissemination, and consumption of editions of literary texts. Consolidating his extensive expertise in British print culture, the exhibition’s curator, Sandro Jung, has adopted an expansive scope for this project, as the exhibition traces connections between different national print cultures in Europe. In that respect, even though the exhibition to a large extent focuses on the output of important German book illustrators such as Salomon Gessner, Gottlieb Leberecht Crusius, and Daniel Chodowiecki, particular attention is devoted to the ways in which their work engages with other European illustration practices.

Drawing on the Library and the curator’s collections, the exhibition puts on display a choice selection of book illustrations. Spread across three rooms, it demonstrates the wide scope and richness of eighteenth-century print cultures, not only in terms of illustrated subjects, but also in terms of the variety in format, illustrative modes, and national practices. The main exhibition room (the Augusteerhalle) is dedicated to some of the biggest literary bestsellers of the eighteenth century, for example, Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, James Thomson’s The Seasons, and James Macpherson’s Ossian poems. The display cases uncover transnational influences between the different European print cultures, as demonstrated by the illustrations in original editions of the literary texts as well as in illustrated translations and spin-offs in other languages. The exhibition indicates that illustrators and publishers would have been familiar with practices in other countries, opting either to imitate a particular visual paradigm or to distance themselves completely from existing models by selecting new subjects for illustration. Either way, the displays exemplify how designers and engravers implemented various visual strategies to adapt and appropriate the original literary text to the culture of the ‘target’ country. In the right-hand corner of this first room, visitors will encounter the first highlight of the exhibition: a quarto edition of The Seasons, produced in Scotland in 1793 and embellished with full-page colour-printed illustrations. This exhibition item reveals the ambition of book publishers (engravings of this and other kinds represented a significant financial investment) as well as the niche market for luxuriously produced illustrated books in the eighteenth century. The adjoining room (the Schatzkammer) continues the transnational focus of the main exhibition room with illustrated translations of different English and German texts, such as John Milton’s Paradise Lost and Salomon Gessner’s Tod Abels. There is also a unique set of drawings by Johann Justin Preissler for Justus Friedrich Wilhelm Zachariae’s Jahreszeiten, which provides an indication of the initial stage of the illustration production process. The third room (the Kabinett), downstairs from the first two rooms, presents visitors with the wide range of print forms in which illustrations were included. The room not only includes illustrated editions of fables and other children’s books, but also vignette books and books with fully engraved title pages. It is also in the Kabinett room that visitors can discover another highlight of the exhibition: an impressive and beautiful display of about 15 different pocket diaries, selected from the curator’s personal collection and on exhibit to the public for the first time in such a number. In this manner, attention is finally drawn to an ephemeral print genre, largely neglected by literary scholars and book historians even though the illustrations in these pocket diaries contributed substantially to the attribution of cultural capital to certain literary texts.

The exhibition is a veritable treat for the eyes. The curator had a clear design in mind when he selected the illustrations and divided them across the different rooms. The production department did an excellent job with the displays, the setup, and the lighting, thus truly doing justice to the material presented. With the illustrations showcased in all their attractive beauty and crisp quality, the exhibition successfully conveys the value and appeal which these print-cultural commodities would have had for eighteenth-century consumers. In a short space of time, visitors can become acquainted with the rich variety of full-page engravings and vignettes, and they can come to appreciate the elegance and sophistication of eighteenth-century book illustrations.

A minor drawback to displaying small- to medium-format book illustrations behind glass is the inevitable inability to explore the designs in all of their intricate details. Since eighteenth-century consumers and contemporary scholars and collectors have often had to rely on magnifying glasses or, more recently, high-definition scans, to examine book illustrations more closely, visitors (especially those used to viewing paintings) may initially have the impression that they are missing certain elements and features of the images. But the exhibition provides ample opportunity to enjoy and appreciate the fine and superior quality of the illustrations. Moreover, it is important to note that the exhibition does an excellent job at presenting the illustrations in their material context, which is essential to convey the full print-cultural contexts within which they were produced. And anyone interested more specifically in the intricate skills and craftsmanship of the various designers and engravers can turn to the exhibition catalogue, which reproduces illustrations from the books on display in high-quality resolution and regularly even in a larger format than the original.

In sum, scholars as well as enthusiasts of the eighteenth century and of print culture more generally who find themselves in the vicinity of Wolfenbüttel during a visit to Germany are highly recommended to consider a quick detour for a visit to the exhibition in the Bibliotheca Augusta. The well-organised exhibition not only presents some beautiful and unique material, but, above all, makes a valuable contribution to the mapping of transnational print-cultural exchanges in eighteenth-century Europe.

Kleine artige Kupfer is on show at the Bibliotheca Augusta, Wolfenbüttel, Germany until 5th August 2018. An exhibition catalogue (in German) has been published in the Wolfenbüttel Hefte series (150 pp., 92 illustrations, €16,80, ISBN: 978-3-477-10931-4).