CONTEXT: Art, Books, & Freedom
Curated by Meg Hitchcock

Columbia University
Rare Book & Manuscript Library
Butler Library, 6th Floor
535 West 114th St., NYC 10027
Library hours: Monday - Friday, 10 - 4:00
Exhibition is up through May 2026
Due to campus entrance restrictions, you must have a QR code and ID to enter campus.
It’s easy. Just email RBML Director Courtney Chartier to request a code at least 24 hrs. in advance: cc4785@columbia.edu 

In CONTEXT: Art, Books, & Freedom, artist and curator Meg Hitchcock brings together 15 artists whose work incorporates books and text. The artists diverge in their approach and content, from social commentary to political statement to literary allusion, but their common ground is their love of the printed word. The artists use books and text as tools of investigation, exploring the psychological impact of visual language while pushing the boundaries of our freedom to express views that diverge from popular opinion. Paradoxically, the book is used as a means to question its own authority within the context of a revered liberal arts library.

Over the years, the artists in CONTEXT have shown together in text-based group exhibitions across the country. Their work takes on new meaning at Columbia University, where they exercise the freedom of expression at a critical time and place in our nation’s history.