Reception: Thursday, July 11, 5–8 pm.
Southside Gallery is pleased to announce a July exhibition, “Celebrating 40 years of Square Books.” The exhibition, an installation of rare vintage and collectible book posters curated by Square Books owner Richard Howorth, will be on display July 9–August 3. A reception is scheduled for Thursday, July 11, 5–8 pm.
All of the posters in the exhibition are for sale and once were displayed in Square Books. Howorth carefully selected the posters for the installation in hopes of curating an exhibition that will appeal to local collectors. His insight into his customers’ favorite writers and books also factored in to which posters were selected.
“Square Books is delighted to partner with Wil Cook and Southside Gallery, an important, highly relevant institution in Oxford’s cultural structure and history, in what we think will be a fun trip down memory lane—a blast of amazing artwork that has been deployed to promote books and writers here over the past 40 years,” said Howorth. “Some people will see something they might want to take home, and we are looking forward to a fun time!”
This is an unconventional exhibition for Southside, as the gallery emphasizes original art, but the idea of a book poster installation to celebrate one of the most iconic bookstores in the country intrigued Wil Cook, director of Southside Gallery. “Richard presented the idea of an installation of hundreds of book posters displayed to form this, sort of, poster collage and I couldn’t pass that up,” Cook says of the show. “It will be a show unlike any we’ve ever had. I think it will be fun as an installation piece, but also nostalgic for a lot of people who live here and the many fans of Square Books, which was a catalyst for Oxford’s literary and arts scene.”
1 thought on “Southside Gallery: Celebrating 40 Years of Square Books”