Freud on the Couch: Psyche in the Book, a new exhibition featuring book works inspired by the psychoanalytical concepts of Sigmund Freud, will travel to Minnesota Center for Book Arts (MCBA) from July 20-September 30, 2018. Freud on the Couch features works by nearly 30 international artists that either directly or indirectly draw from Freudian concepts, theories, and themes. This provocative exhibition asks viewers to find parallels between the ways that visual art and psychoanalysis act as frameworks for the collective unconscious. MCBA will host an opening reception on Thursday, July 26 from 6-8 pm in the Open Book Cowles Literary Commons.
Artists featured in the exhibition include Thorsten Baensch, Sarah Bryant, Crystal Cawley, Ken Campbell, Maureen Cummins, Anne Deguelle, Gerhild Ebel, Stefan Gunnesch, Karen Hanmer, Anna Helm, Susan Johanknecht, M. M. Lum, Jule Claudia Mahn, Patrizia Meinert, Simon + Christine Morris, Didier Mutel, Susanne Nickel, Yasutomo Ota, Waltraud Palme, Veronika Schäpers, Robbin Ami Silverberg, Herbert Stattler, Marian St. Laurent, Ines von Ketelhodt, Carola Willbrand, and Sam Winston. Through various forms of book art, they explore Freudian concepts such as the dream state, consciousness, memory, multiple personalities, fixation, and ego/id, combined with analytic techniques such as hypnosis and free association.