Discover the fascinating history of interactive printmaking with two expert speakers and create your own interactive volvelle.

We are delighted to be sharing this event at the RCP Museum with two excellent speakers. Attendees will join us in person for the whole evening, Suzanne Karr Smchmidt will be streamed live into the venue from Illinois for her talk, you will have a chance to explore exhibition 'A body of knowledge' during our drinks reception, and then you will get hands-on creating volvelles while exploring their fascinating history with Katie Birkwood. Both talks will be recorded and shared online after the event. 

Book now

Tickets: £15 

Playing with Premodern Interactive Books

Have you ever seen a Renaissance pop-up book? Books and single-sheet prints with moving parts have been a part of the art of printmaking since its invention. This brief overview of some of the most cleverly interactive European publications through several centuries demonstrates the experimental hands-on uses of dials, flaps and do-it-yourself printed scientific instrument kits.

Suzanne Karr Schmidt is the George Amos Poole III Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts at Chicago’s Newberry Library. She works on the materiality and use of prints and books, notably her monograph Interactive and Sculptural Printmaking in the Renaissance and exhibition catalogue Altered and Adorned: Using Renaissance Prints in Daily Life (Art Institute of Chicago, 2011). Recent and forthcoming exhibitions at the Newberry that engaged with her interest in the history of science, paper engineering, and fabric, include Renaissance Invention: Stradanus’s Nova Reperta, co-curated with Lia Markey in 2020, Pop-Up Books Through the Ages in 2023, and Impressive Textiles: Printing on Fabric in Fall 2026-27.

The ‘Mirror of the Cosmos’: getting to grips with a volvelle

Before the invention of GPS, online calendars, or even the humble wristwatch, there were devices that helped people to understand their time and place in the universe. A volvelle is a multi-layered rotating paper diagram, most commonly used to explain and illustrate the relationships between the heavens and the earth.

In this interactive session, you’ll get to assemble and explore your own replica volvelle to take away with you. You’ll learn some of the historical background to its creation and the fundamentals of how it works.

Katie Birkwood has been the rare books and special collections librarian at the Royal College of Physicians since 2012, where she cares for a collection of over 50,000 titles spanning 550 years. She is the lead curator of current exhibition 'A body of knowledge' which explores 500 years of book collecting at the RCP. She particularly enjoys creating interactive replicas, kits, and exercises that explore the materiality and functionality of early printed books.