2022-2023 Events

“Inventing the Alphabet,” a lecture by Dr. Johanna Drucker.

Date: September 20, 4:30 pm.

Location: Chazen Museum of Art Auditorium.

The Friends of UW-Madison Libraries are pleased to welcome Dr. Drucker – whose research interests lay at the confluence of printmaking, visual arts, design, and book history – to campus for a talk Tuesday, September 20 at the Chazen Museum of Art Auditorium. Her remarks will begin at 4:30, with a reception at 5:30 that includes refreshments and book-signing opportunities.

Inventing the Alphabet is the product of decades-long work stemming from Dr. Drucker’s time in the stacks at Doe Library while she was a student at the University of California, Berkeley in the 1980s. Drucker explains, “The freedom to access these stacks was an unparalleled opportunity. I learned by reading through whole neighborhoods of call numbers. A single card catalogue reference could introduce me to an entire field of study once I arrived in front of the shelves.” Dr. Drucker rates libraries’ abundance of resources and the ability to explore collections as among the most significant foundational elements in her scholarly formation.