Overview

This book examines ephemeral exhibitions from 1750 to 1918. In an era of acceleration and elusiveness, these transient spaces functioned as microcosms in which reality was shown, simulated, staged, imagined, experienced and known. They therefore had a dimension of spectacle to them, as the volume demonstrates. Against this backdrop, the different chapters deal with a plethora of spaces and spatial installations: the Wunderkammer, the spectacle garden, cosmoramas and panoramas, the literary space, the temporary museum, and the alternative exhibition space.

Full Product Details

Author:   Dominique Bauer ,  Camilla Murgia
Publisher:   Taylor & Francis Ltd
Imprint:   Routledge
ISBN:  

9781041178859

ISBN 10:   1041178859
Pages:   300
Publication Date:   01 December 2025
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Forthcoming
Availability:   Not yet available  
This item is yet to be released. You can pre-order this item and we will dispatch it to you upon its release.

Table of Contents

I. Introduction. Staging the Temporary: The Fragile Character of Space (Camilla Murgia), II. The Department Store, 1. One need be neither a shopper nor a purchaser to enjoy: Ephemeral Exhibitions at Tiffany & Co., 1870-1905 (Amy McHugh and Cristina Vignone), 2. Enclosed Exhibitions: Claustrophobia, Balloons, and the Department Store in Zola's Au Bonheur des Dames (Kathryn Haklin), III. Spectacles, 3. Jardins-Spectacles: Spaces and Traces of Embodiment (Susan Taylor-Leduc), 4. Parading the Temporary: Cosmoramas, Panoramas and Spectacles in Early Nineteenth-Century Paris (Camilla Murgia), 5. Portable Museums: Imaging and Staging the Northern Gothic Art Tour: Ephemera and Alterity (Juliet Simpson), IV. On the Intersection of Literature and the Built Environment, 6. The Elusiveness of History and the Ephemerality of Display in Nineteenth-Century France. On the Intersection of the Built Environment and the Spatial Image in Literature (Dominique Bauer), 7. The Phantasmatic Chinatown in Helen Hunt Jackson's The Chinese Empire and Mark Twain's Roughing It (Li-hsin Hsu), V. The Museum and Alternative Exhibition Spaces, 8. Show meets Science. How Hagenbeck's Human Zoos inspired Ethnographic Science and its Museum Presentation (Stefanie Jovanovic-Kruspel), 9. The Last Wunderkammer: Curiosities in Private Collections between the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (Emanuele Pellegrini), 10. The Impact of Alternative Exhibition Spaces on European Modern Art before World War I (Nirmalie Alexandra Mulloli), Index.

Reviews

Author Information

Dominique Bauer is Assistant Professor of History at the Faculty of Architecture, University of Leuven, Belgium, and a member of the Centre d’Analyse Culturelle de la Première Modernité at the Université Catholique de Louvain. Camilla Murgia is Assistant Professor in History of Art at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan. Previously, she was Junior Lecturer and Substitute Senior Lecturer in History of Art at the University of Lausanne, where she researched space, theatre, and staging in nineteenth-century France.

Tab Content 6

Author Website:  

Countries Available

All regions