Maastricht University Library Exhibitions - Maastricht University Library online exhibitions

Digital exhibitions

We organise several physical exhibitions as well as in digital form by our own or in collaboration with university faculties or other cultural institutions.

China Exhibition

Driven by missionary zeal, many Jesuits embarked on a risky journey to the East – and quite a few of them did not survive the hazardous ocean journey. These missionaries managed to establish a real dialogue on religion, philosophy and science with the oft well-educated upper echelons of Chinese society. Read More

Day Zero / Ground Zero Cape Town

A story about the Liesbeek river in Cape Town, South Africa, about its colonial past and its Anthropocene future. As a kind of a historical interlocuter, we 'walk' the river with Peter Kolb (1675–1726), the first known scientific explorer of the Cape of Good Hope. Read More

European Military Memory tourism

How did Europe’s battlefields and military monuments become tourist destinations? Drawing upon historic travel guides from Maastricht University Special Collections, this digital exhibition traces the evolution of military tourism and memory culture from the Napoleonic era through the First World War. Read More

Once Upon a Law: the Grimm Brothers’ stories, language, and legal culture

Highlighting the relationship between the stories of the Brothers Grimm and their lesser-known works about language and law. With focus on the perspective of the Grimm brothers as legal scholars, and through that lens, underlying legal customs become visible in the themes of their most famous fairy tales. Read More

Physical exhibitions

Books, Tales & Tiny Worlds

Historical fairy-tale books from Maastricht University Special Collections are displayed alongside contemporary artworks inspired by their stories and illustrations. Through dioramas, embroidery, papermaking and other forms of craftsmanship, three artists bring these centuries-old tales to life in intricate miniature worlds.

Sexology and Self-Help in the 1930s

An exhibition at Randwyck Library on Dutch gynecologist and sexologist Theodoor Hendrik van de Velde (1873–1937). A pioneer of modern sexology, Van de Velde argued that eroticism was not a moral danger but the foundation of a healthy marriage. His famous works, including Ideal Marriage (1926) and The Ideal Woman (1933), offered practical advice on intimacy, sexual variation, and contraception, written in an open yet refined style that made them accessible to a wide audience.