Past Exhibitions
Most of the displays are curated by members of staff and postgrads with experience in exhibition design, supported by the assistant curator and volunteers. Our display and exhibition area has been refurbished, with new lighting, UV protected roof lights and new vitrines. It’s a secure, safe and well-lit space to show material from the Collections, and for travelling exhibitions. Open by appointment.
See our current exhibitions on the Events page.
Books and the people
This exhibition ran between 30 April – 29 May 2026. This exhibition looks at a moment before book-buying was possible for most people and some of the changes interwar that made access to new books easier, more convenient, and sometimes cheaper, helping to develop more democratic, shared cultures of reading.
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The Graphic Play: Poster Design at the National Theatre
This exhibition ran between 17 November 2025 – 13 February 2026. This exhibition of National Theatre posters from the Lettering, Printing and Graphic Design Collections focuses on the contrasting design styles of Ken Briggs and Richard Bird – from structurally precise modernist typography to dramatically expressive illustration.
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Isotype and publishing
An exhibition featuring work by the Isotype Institute relating to the publication of ‘soft propaganda’ during the Second World War.
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Up in Arms: posters for protest, solidarity, engagement and action
Up in Arms, an exhibition curated to coincide with the Centre for Book Cultures and Publishing annual conference
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Way of Type – Evolution of Chinese Typeforms
The exhibition charts the development of type and type-making technologies in China, from the invention of movable type.
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Concrete poetry in Britain, 1963–75
The exhibition provides a survey of key publications and illuminating examples, and focuses on the output of three significant figures: Dom Sylvester Houédard, Bob Cobbing and John Furnival.
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The 1980s: selected items from an iconic decade
The exhibition ran between September and December 2022. A showcase display explores items from the Collections from the 1980s.
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Ed Fella: Exit Level Design, 1985–2012
This exhibition ran between 31 January –25 March 2022. This exhibition curated by Rick Poynor showed work of the American graphic designer Edward Fella.
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