Jane Irish: War Is Not What You Think. A Collaborative Exhibition of the La Salle University Art Museum and the Connelly Library

Welcome to the digital archive of Jane Irish: War Is Not What You Think. This collaborative exhibition between the La Salle University Art Museum and the Connelly Library was on display in both locations from January 17 to March 29, 2012.

Irish has been drawing visual inspiration and historical research contexts from the Connelly Library’s world‐renowned rare book and manuscript collection, Imaginative Representations of the Vietnam War, for the past 10 years. Maintained in the Department of Special Collections, it contains over 20,000 creative items related to the Vietnam War, including novels, short stories, poetry, music, screenplays, graphic art, films, sound recordings, posters, prints, video and board games, as well as literary and visual pornography. Irish worked closely with John Baky, Director of Libraries and Curator of Special Collections to select material from the Vietnam Collection to craft an exhibition in the Library that would juxtapose those films, books, and graphics that served as inspiration against the artwork itself.

Irish’s work explores the impact of the Vietnam War and its continuing relevance today. Through her paintings and ceramic vessels decorated with pastoral landscapes, people and poetry, Irish highlights the heroism of the soldiers as well the Vietnam Veterans Against the War, both of whom fought valiantly for freedom and peace.

The La Salle University Art Museum featured Irish’s large mural work, The Conversation, along with several related multi‐media pieces. The exhibition also included a selection of Vietnamese landscape paintings and ceramic vases embellished by gold luster and poetry by Vietnam War Veterans.

Irish was recently awarded a prestigious Pew Fellowship in the Arts in 2011. The artist is represented by Locks Gallery in Philadelphia, http://www.locksgallery.com/. More information about her life and work may be found on the artist’s website, http://www.janeirish.com/.