New exhibition 'Plain Things Wonders' explores the art and science of attending to ordinary things

Plain Things Wonders

5 November 2026 – 29 August 2027
ST Lee Gallery, Weston Library

The Bodleian Libraries today announce details of their forthcoming exhibition, Plain Things Wonders, which marks 400 years since the publication of Francis Bacon’s Sylva Sylvarum, one of the most influential texts in the development of experimental science.

Sylva Sylvarum turned natural history away from curiosities and marvellous beasts, in favour of the wonder of plain things. In his introduction to Sylva Sylvarum, William Rawley wrote that Bacon’s ambition was “to make wonders plain, and not plain things wonders”. Bacon did so, paradoxical, by inviting his readers to be curious about the most ordinary of things: how sugar gleams when scraped by a knife; how breath evaporates from a window pane; what happens to fruit left out in hot weather. Plain Things Wonders examines the legacy of Bacon’s turn to the everyday, tracing how close attention to the natural world has shaped scientific discovery, natural illustration, and artists’ books over the centuries.

At a time when attention is being prized as an essential human resource, the exhibition considers what we might discover by directing more of it towards the world around us. From the familiar to the microscopic, Plain Things Wonders invites visitors to look again at the seemingly ordinary and discover the extraordinary within it.

The history of investigation

One of the exhibition’s major highlights will be the manuscript of Gilbert White’s The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne (1789), a foundational text of ecology. White’s book documents the environment and local heritage of the parish of Selborne with groundbreaking detail, establishing a precedent for sustained localised observation of the natural world. This will mark the first time that the manuscript has been lent by the Gilbert White House and Gardens at The Wakes, Selborne.

Plain Things Wonders will also feature etchings and drawings produced by Anna and Susanna Lister, who captured the intricate beauty of snails and shells through detailed illustrations copied from live specimens and collections belonging to their father, the naturalist Dr Martin Lister. The sisters created over 1,000 illustrations for their father’s pioneering book Historiae Conchyliorum (1685 – 1692), a study of shells and molluscs that helped to establish a new standard for scientific art. Continuing on this theme, the exhibition will also include a first edition of Robert Hooke’s Micrographia (1665), the first book to include illustrations of insects and plants as seen through a microscope. Micrographia contains 38 engraved copperplate illustrations enlarging the microscopic aspects of these organisms, including famous depictions of a flea, a louse and a fly’s compound eye.

Popular science

The exhibition also explores how ordinary people have been invited to participate in attention to the natural world. A dedicated display will document the history of the popular science books for children, exploring how such books translated complicated scientific concepts for young minds, including the artwork and examples of the Ladybird series ‘What to Look For…’, inspiring generations of young people to take a closer look at the world around them.

A further display examines the long history of observation of temperature, weather, and seasonal change, especially in Oxford – from a fourteenth-century manuscript recording the weather month-by-month, through the seventeenth-century invention of graph paper by Martin Lister to record barometric pressure, to the continuous records of the Radcliffe Observatory from the early nineteenth century to the present day, and a contemporary climate blanket, crocheted to record high temperatures from the 1940s to the 2020s. The display encourages reflection on how the effects of climate change are noticed across time.

Other displays focus on particular ordinary materials and objects made wonderful: soil, snow, lichen, wheat, woodlice, and wood. Throughout the exhibition, the link between nature, art, science, and books is blurred: the exhibition shows poems, works, and books made by artists which take ordinary observation and make it extraordinary, including works by Tom Phillips, Helen Douglas, Daniel & Clara, Alice Oswald, and Tessa Farmer, among others.

Dr Kathryn Murphy, one of the curators of the exhibition, says:

This exhibition uncovers a long history of making plain things wonders, by scientists, artists, and lay people, and encourages viewers to reflect on their own attention to the wonder of the world immediately around them.

Richard Ovenden, Bodley’s Librarian and Helen Hamlyn Director of the University Libraries, says:

Bacon’s Sylva Sylvarum showed us that some of the most remarkable lessons about the world can come from the most seemingly ordinary objects. Plain Things Wonders brings this shift in awareness to life through 400 years of remarkable treasures from our collections and beyond. We hope this exhibition will inspire visitors to take time to look a little closer at the world around them.

The Bodleian Libraries gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the John S Cohen Foundation for this exhibition.

For further information, please contact Flint Culture via bodleian.libraries@flint-culture.com.