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A Virtual Curator Talk with Rich Dana

Join the curator of A Roll of the Dice: Symbolism in the Sackner Archive, for a behind-the-scenes look at his spring 2025 Main Library Gallery exhibition. Learn more about Ruth and Marvin Sackner, the self-taught archivists who created the world’s largest collection of word art, which they donated to the University of Iowa Libraries in 2019. Find out how "A Roll of the Dice will Never Abolish Chance" by Stéphane Mallarmé helped break down the boundaries between visual art, poetry, and music, and what drew the Sackners to works inspired by this iconic 19th-century French Symbolist poem.

Registration is required to attend this free webinar event.
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Rich Dana is the project coordinator librarian for the Ruth and Marvin Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry at the University of Iowa Libraries. He currently teaches classes at the Center for Book Arts in New York City and is an adjunct instructor at the University of Iowa Center for the Book. In addition, he is a copier artist and the author of Cheap Copies!: The Obsolete Press Guide to DIY Mimeography, Hectography and Spirit Duplication. 

About the exhibition:
In 1897, French Symbolist poet Stéphane Mallarmé revolutionized the world of graphic design with a single poem that forever changed the way we look at words. His work illustrated how text conveys meaning not only through words, but also as visual symbols that contain a deeper meaning. For over 125 years, artists and writers have continued to explore the mystery of Mallarmé’s poem “Un coup de dés jamais n’abolira le hasard” [A throw of the dice will never abolish chance]. This exhibition, curated by Rich Dana, features art, books, and ephemera from the Ruth and Marvin Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry that explore the immense influence of “Un coup de dés” since its publication.