World of the Book

World of the Book: The Rare, the Sacred and the Iconic features more than 300 historically significant items from the Library’s State Collection, showcasing the history of book design, production and illustration from c.2000 BCE to today. 

Travel through the history of the book and marvel at items such as a nearly 4000-year old cuneiform tablet; an example of the Hyakumantō Darani, the oldest dateable printed texts in the world; stunning examples of colour theory, including works by Leonardo da Vinci and Josef Albers; the evolution of manga from Hokusai to Astro Boy; fan art inspired by Andy Griffiths’s Treehouse series and much more.

Themes explored in this year’s exhibition are: 

• books and ideas
• books and imagination
• exploring the world
• art and nature
• artists and books.

2025 marks the 20th anniversary of World of the Book. Since 2005, the Library’s annual exhibition has displayed more than 5000 objects and provided free access to some of the rarest and most unusual items in the Library's Rare Books and State Collections.

In celebration of the anniversary, 20 iconic items that were featured in the inaugural exhibition will once again be on display, including a manuscript made for Lorenzo de’ Medici in 1478 when he was at the height of his power as the de facto ruler Florence (pictured above) and the oldest book in Australia, De institutione musica (The Principles of Music), a seminal work on the theory of music dated to c.1100 CE.

Books hold the world's stories, from the earliest known myths and legends to postmodern fiction. They are also keys that unlock inner worlds. At a fundamental level, books facilitate empathy, allowing us to imagine ourselves as other than who we are.

The books and imagination section of World of the Book explores:

• Women translators of the Iliad and the Odyssey.
• Female and non-binary utopias and dystopias, including work by Ursula Le Guin, Margaret Atwood and Ayn Rand.
• Andy Griffiths and the Thirteen-Storey Treehouse series.

The history of ideas is mirrored in the history of the book. Books have altered the course of history itself, through the dissemination of ideas that have changed how we think about the world and ourselves. 

The information explosion of recent times now makes it impossible to contain the world's knowledge within one library, let alone in one book. Yet books continue to be a powerful means of informing and inspiring new generations.

The books and ideas section of World of the Book showcases:

• A medieval scribal knife, used in the creation of handwritten manuscripts in the pre-print era. 
• One of the most extraordinary treasures of the Library’s medieval manuscripts collection: a book made for Lorenzo de’ Medici in 1478. Watch our Rare Book Club video about the manuscript.  
• A Chinese phrasebook for life in 19th-century Australia, The Chinese and English Instructor. 
• A tie-in with our Beyond the Book digital exhibition, with a focus on Prince Rupert of the Rhine and his hunting poodle, Boy (pictured above).

In 2024, an acquisition of historic significance was made for the Rare Books Collection: an example of the Hyakumantō Darani, the oldest dateable printed texts in the world.

Previously, the Library’s collections have been able to tell the story of printing predominantly from a European perspective, starting with the innovation of Johann Gutenberg in the 1450s. We can now explore a much richer global history of printing. 

World of the Book celebrates the extraordinary Hyakumantō Darani – the only example in an Australian public collection – with an ‘exhibition within an exhibition’ about Japan and the history of the book. This section is dedicated to a rich dive into the history of printing in Japan, from  textual prints such as the Darani, to woodblock art prints and beyond. 

Botanical and natural history illustration unites the scientific with the artistic. Since ancient times, text and image have been used to record observations of nature. 

This section of World of the Book includes: 

• A display on early herbals, exploring the origins of modern medical science, featuring the earliest example of a herbal in the Library’s collection: Ortus sanitatis (Garden of Health) by Johannes von Cuba published in 1497.
• A celebration of the animals with whom we share our spaces, from flying foxes to creepy crawlies.
• An exploration of the enduring power of ocean creatures in a display about real and imagined creatures of the deep.

Books are valued not only for their content but as objects of beauty and craft. Since the invention of the codex, artists in cultures around the world have been intimately involved in their production. They have determined the look and shape of books, from papermaking and illustration to design and binding.

The artists and books section of World of the Book includes:

• An exploration of the weird and wonderful worlds of Surrealism and Dada, from Max Ernst to Franticham.
• A look at the history of colour theory, including works by Leonardo da Vinci, Rene Descartes and Isaac Newton, plus the first work of colour theory published by a woman: Mary Gartside’s hand illustrated An Essay on a New Theory of Colours from 1808. The display also highlights the iconic work of Bauhaus artist Josef Albers, The Interaction of Colour. 
• A focus on Victorian artist Deanna Hitti, whose practice celebrates her Lebanese heritage and the visual forms of text, while resisting and commenting upon European Orientalism and fetishisation of Middle Eastern female bodies. 

The Women Writers Fund is a pioneering fund that seeks to redress the historical gender bias in the Victorian State Collection by acquiring works by under-represented women writers.

The Fund was co-founded by Krystyna Campbell-Pretty AM and Helen Sykes in 2021 and is also endowed by the Helen Macpherson Smith Trust.

This year’s World of the Book exhibition features three significant acquisitions made possible through the fund.

Mary Gartside’s hand illustrated An Essay on the Theory of Colours (1808) was acquired in 2022. In 2024, the Library acquired the first translation of Homer's ancient epics the Iliad and the Odyssey by a woman – the remarkable Anne Lefevre Dacier, who published her erudite translations in the early 1700s. In 2025, the first work of science fiction by a woman entered the Rare Books Collection: Margaret Cavendish’s The Description of a Blazing-World, published by Anna Maxwell in 1668. 

Learn more about how you can support the Women Writers Fund.

Uncover the amazing breadth of the Library's Rare Books Collection.

Marvel at old, valuable, famous and beautiful works – including our collection of medieval manuscripts and many significant first editions – and discover the fascinating history of the book as a tangible object, from cuneiform tablet to contemporary artists' books.

The World of the Book celebrates manuscripts and publications in all their varying forms. Sumptuously illustrated with rare items from State Library Victoria's collections, this treasure chest of a book invites idle browsing as much as avid reading.