"PANSY, DYKE, HOMO, FAG: 150 YEARS OF QUEER CULTURE" ON DISPLAY AT NYU'S FALES COLLECTION THRU SEPT. 15
The exhibition entitled "Pansy, Dyke, Homo, Fag: 150 Years of Queer Culture" focuses on primary research materials available in New York University's Bobst Library for the study of gender and sexuality in English and American culture. Free and open to the public, it is on display through September 15, 2005 in the Fales Collection, third floor of NYU's Bobst Library, 70 Washington Square South. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For further information call 212.998.2596.
Drawing on the large amount of material in the Fales Collection, including English and American novels from 1740 to the present with queer content, notable early German and English homosexual rights materials, gay and lesbian pulp novels, photographic
materials, and archives, the exhibition also features material from the Downtown New York Collection. This collection documents the New York downtown arts scene and is especially rich in queer materials, including artworks by David Wojnarowicz and by the art collective, RepoHistory, which produced "Queer Spaces."
Selected by Benjamin Mosse, the materials on display are arranged chronologically, starting with the most recent publications and working back in time to the mid-nineteenth century. It juxtaposes various modes of queer expression, such as The Twilight Men with Orlando, and Fag Rag's hippies with The Male Physique's buff body builders. The role of pornography, especially in gay men's writing, is shown to have its roots in the "one handers" from the 1950's and '60's, which helped introduce descriptions of sex into queer fiction. Similarly, models for gay male self-styling from "twinks" to
Tom of Finland are ubiquitous on covers and dust jackets that helped sell the fiction.
Among the archives and manuscript collections with queer content at Fales are: AMFAR Archives, Between C&D Archive, Dennis Cooper Papers, Judson Memorial Church Archive, Ron Kolm Papers, Elizabeth Robins Papers, and David Wojnarowicz Papers.
Marvin J. Taylor Director, Fales Library and Special Collections New York University 70 Washington Square South New York, NY 10012 ph. 212.998.2596 fax. 212.995.3835
"Keep watch over absent meaning." --Maurice Blanchot