X, the library's hell, Eros in solitary confinement

For the general public today, the Library's Hell is understood as a legend, a fantasy, the major territory of prohibition that feeds back all curiosities. But the gap is wide between myth and reality. Therefore the ambition of the exhibition the BnF is dedicating to this obscure part of its collections is to lift the veil on the truth of Hell. One should trace the history, full of surprises, of the constitution of this abstract place, mental - a "symbol", a classification number which refers to the "reserved" consultation - where are collected texts and images deemed contrary to public morality.

The exhibition offers a double journey. One is about history: how this hell was established in the Department of papers and the Department of Prints? How has it changed? The second offers a stroll through the contents of this Hell: What are the books, documents, images that have been classified there? Those routes through literature as they are not usually taught are going to meet an imaginary world where the characters obey all the fantasies of desire, where excess of language becomes pamphleteer and the political discourse, pornographic. This world is a world of anonymity, pseudonym, false addresses, misleading dates, clandestine publishers, closed places, convents, boudoirs, brothels, but also prisons libraries. Writers such as Sade, Apollinaire, Louÿs, Battle and a few other are the forever anonymous actors to the celebration of eroticism and sex between the sixteenth and Twentieth century. A particular attention is given to the first exhibition of pornographic photographies and Japanese prints are exposed as well thanks to the generosity of the first Western art collectors whom made donation to the libray.

The library's hell, Eros in solitary confinement
Frome December 4th until March 2d, 2008 04
Exhibition forbidden to less than 16 years old

Bibliothèque François Mitterrand
http://www.bnf.fr
Site François Mitterrand / Grande Galerie
Quai François-Mauriac
75706 Paris Cedex 13
Tel : 33(0)1 53 79 59 59 (vocal answering machine)

Full fee: 7.00 euros - reduced fee: 5.00 euros

Tuesday - Saturday from 10am to 07pm
Sunday from 01pm to 07pm - Closed monday and bank holidays

Metro : Lines 6 (Quai de la gare),14 et RER C (Bibliothèque François-Mitterrand)
Bus : 89, 62 et 132