Where the Wild Lines are

Children’s books fascinate children and grownups alike. With their unusual stories and especially their varied and remarkable illustrations in individual styles they appeal to all kinds of people.

Since the late 19th century children’s books have been a favoured means of expression for designers, who find in them a field in which they can be truly creative. They often develop the narrative and design themselves or produce the illustrations in close collaboration with the writer.

This exhibition is presenting roughly 180 children’s books from more than 25 countries dating from the end of the 19th century up to the present day. It draws on the rich holdings of the museum, which has collected and exhibited children’s books since its founding.

The show’s first section presents the history of the children’s book, introducing national and international developments and design styles to visitors. In the second section four different design approaches are displayed: special uses of colour, focus on letters or shapes, altered perspectives, and expansions into three dimensions.

Carina Deuschl’s interactive architecture allows the books to be studied by visitors of different heights in house-shaped cabinets. Lecterns and benches provide places in which selected books can be studied at length.

The exhibition is enriched by comments from contemporary designers.

Wall drawings that reflect and comment on the exhibition’s themes were specially created for the show by Christoph Niemann. Alluding to the exhibition’s title, in his drawings he also plays with the pairing and opposition of lines and planes. More of his drawings on the balustrade serve as a guide to the show’s thematic groupings.

Six short animated films take up the design approaches of the exhibited books and develop them further in new illustrated stories of their own. They were produced for the exhibition by students at the University of Münster’s School of Design under the direction of Prof. Henning Tietz.

With more than 400 illustrations, a catalogue of the exhibition designed by Ariane Spanier and published by the Buchhandlung Walther und Franz König provides insight that goes beyond the exhibited book pages and is supplemented by texts by international experts in the children’s book field.

Supported by PIN. Freunde der Pinakothek der Moderne

Opening: 10 October 2024