Universal Collection: A Mark Dion Project

About the publication

Universal Collection: A Mark Dion Project, a site-specific installation comprising a monumental cabinet filled with hundreds of objects, was presented May 26 through December 11, 2016. Sourced entirely from the Vassar campus, these objects invite consideration of the circumstances and implications of their accumulation. Their display evokes the ideologies that dictated their collection, as well as the changing approaches to material cutlure at Vassar over time. Mark Dion (American, born 1961) completed Universal Collection, with the assistance of students, as Vassar artist-in-residence for the Spring 2016 semester. It is the culmination of "From the Natural History Museum to Ecotourism: The Collection of Nature," a course cross-listed in American and Environmental Studies, that Dion co-taught with Professor of Anthropology, Anne Pike-Tay.

Edited by Mary-Kay Lombino and Elizabeth Nogrady, and with a foreword by James Mundy, this paperback book is 74 pages and includes a full list of objects included in the installation, a dust jacket/poster of image of the completed installation, and entries on individual objects by Elizabeth Bennett, Richard L. Jones, Mary-Kay Lombino, John McCleary, Molly Nesbit, Elizabeth Nogrady, Ronald Patkus, Anne Pike-Tay, Mark Schlessman, Laura Streett, Kathleen M. Susman, and Jeffrey R. Walker. The exhibition and publication are generously supported by the Creative Arts Across Disciplines initiative of Vassar College, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; the Ralph E. Ogden Foundation; and the Friends of the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center Exhibition Fund. Additional support provided by the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) and by The Helen Forster Novy 1928 Fund.