A one-year-old mural at Washington State University Libraries celebrates the sisterhood and partnership of writer Virginia Woolf and artist Vanessa Bell. And you can learn more about it — and the WSU Libraries’ Woolf Library — in a newly released video.
In it, Trevor Bond, dean of the libraries, and WSU Arts Assistant Professor Jiemei “Mei” Lin, the arts assistant professor who painted the mural, discuss the collection and the inspiration behind it.
WSU’s Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections houses a Woolf Library that fills 219 shelves, totaling roughly 9,900 books. It includes the bulk of the books from Virginia and Leonard Woolf’s private libraries, along with original Hogarth Press books.
It’s just really a big window of this world that is no longer there. – Trevor Bond
That library inspired the idea for the mural, according to artist Lin. But it was the covers for Virginia’s books published by the Hogarth Press and designed by Vanessa that Lin took as inspiration for her design of the mural itself.
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How wonderful, Trevor and Mei Lin! I loved spending time in your reading room, getting to look at some of those 9900 books. This short video made me homesick for Pullman, for the Holland-Terrell Library, and for the Archives. What a special place. Thank you for taking me back to a lovely time in my life. I wish I could see the mural in person. Please say hello to Julia King for me, too! I consult her book/catalogue all the time.