Finding Alice: Artists Exploring Wonderland featuring Abelardo Morell

When Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland came out in 1865, it was a blockbuster success and was widely credited with changing the landscape of children’s literature, adding nonsensical fun to what had been a genre obsessed with moralizing. Since its first publication, it has been translated into over 175 languages and continues to inspire artists from around the world to interpret Carroll’s story in their own visionary ways.

Finding Alice: Artists Exploring Wonderland featuring Abelardo Morell features works from two photographic series by the acclaimed artist Abelardo Morell, as well as several versions of the book to examine how different artists have illustrated the classic story. Artists include Andrea D’Aquino (American b. 1979), Salvador Dalí (Spanish 1904–1989), Camille Rose Garcia (American b. 1970), Yayoi Kusama (Japanese b. 1929), Oleg Lipchenko (Ukrainian/Canadian b. 1957), Peter Newell (American 1862–1924), and Evgeny Alexandrovich Shukaev (Russian 1932–1988) among others.

Of his initial Alice in Wonderland series, Morell says, “I designed my images to be situated within a landscape made of books because it struck me that Carroll had linked Wonderland to the idea of discovering imagination by digging deep into the pages of a book. At this time my daughter, Laura, was seven years old and these pictures felt in part to be tributes to her, who like Alice, was an equally brave girl in my life.” Later, his experience during the COVID-19 pandemic and sheltering in place “sent [him] down another, different sort of rabbit hole. Suddenly, Alice’s adventures seemed to have a lot in common with what was going on in the world—and within me. His Through the Looking Glass series revolves around Alice stepping into a mirror, on the other side of which there is a topsy-turvy, unfamiliar, and illogical world. “What she encounters there seemed to me to have parallels to new realities in our present moment. Notably, however, in both her trips to Wonderland, Alice is resilient. She confronts the many disturbing things she encounters with determination and, in the end, she manages to adapt to her new situation. Alice’s rolling with the punches supplied me with an instructive guide to living in turbulent times. Brave Alice learns to deal with the irrational without ignoring it.  She makes her own sense out of nonsense.”

This exhibition was inspired by an exhibition of the same title, organized by the Ellen Noël Art Museum (Odessa, Texas) who has generously donated the books included in the exhibition, and provided curatorial support as the touring exhibition concept developed.

About the Artist, Abelardo Morell

Abelardo Morell and his family fled Cuba in 1962, moving to New York City. He is well known in the fine art and photographic communities for creating camera obscura images in various places around the world. In 1998, he was an artist-in-residence at Boston’s Gardner Museum, and the following year, Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts hosted his retrospective Abelardo Morell and the Camera Eye. A later retrospective entitled Abelardo Morell: The Universe Next Door was held at the Art Institute of Chicago in 2013, and was subsequently shown at the Getty Center in Los Angeles. The artist was also the subject of a documentary film, Shadow of the House, in 2007.

Abelardo Morell was awarded the CINTAS Foundation fellowship (1992); the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship (1993); the International Center of Photography’s Infinity Award (2011); and the Lucie Awards Honoree for Achievement in Fine Art (2017). His work is in numerous private and public collections, including the Art Institute of Chicago; the Fondation Cartier, Paris; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Victoria & Albert Museum, London; and the Museum of Modern Art, New York. There are numerous publications and monographs on his work, including his illustration of Alice in Wonderland and Book of Books, with an introduction by author Nicholson Baker.

Abelardo Morell lives and works in Boston. He studied at Bowdoin College and holds an MFA from Yale University, and an honorary doctorate from Bowdoin. Until 2009, he was a professor of photography at Massachusetts College of Art. He is exclusively represented by the Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York.

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Exhibition Details

37 digital prints on aluminum, 33 books, 1 AV interactive

  • Content

    Fee Includes:
    Press Kit
    Registrar’s Packet
    Programming Guide
    Gallery Guide
    Text Panels
    Narrative Labels
    Full Insurance
    Installation Instructions
    Custom-Designed and Built Crates

  • Curated By

    ExhibitsUSA

  • Organized By

    Mid-America Arts Alliance/ExhibitsUSA

  • Out-of-Region Rental Fee

    $6,950

  • In-Region Rental Fee

    $4,170

  • Duration

    7-week display

  • Shipping

    Van Line

  • Running Feet

    TBD

  • Square Feet

    -

  • Security

    Standard

  • Number of Crates/Total Weight

    TBD

  • Insurance

    The exhibition is fully insured by ExhibitsUSA at no additional expense to you, both while installed and during transit.

Tour Schedule

Finding Alice: Artists Exploring Wonderland featuring Abelardo Morell is touring April 2026 through March 2031. The dates below reflect seven-week exhibition periods. Dates are subject to change; please contact MoreArt@maaa.org or (800) 473-3872 x208/209 for current availability.

  • April 6 - May 25, 2026 West Baton Rouge Museum
    Baton Rouge, LA
    booked
  • June 16 - August 11, 2026 Houston Public Library
    Houston, TX
    booked
  • September 1 - October 20, 2026 Provo City Library
    Provo, UT
    booked
  • November 10, 2026 - March 16, 2027 Washington State Historical Soceity
    Tacoma, WA
    pending
  • April 6 - May 25, 2027 Metropolitan Library Systems of Oklahoma County
    Oklahoma City, OK
    booked
  • June 16 - August 11, 2027
    available
  • September 1 - October 20, 2027 Carthage Council on the Arts
    Carthage, MO
    booked
  • November 10, 2027 - January 7, 2028 Northeast Wisconsin Technical Wisconsin Technical College
    Green Bay, WI
    pending
  • January 28 - March 16, 2028 Forsyth Gallery - Texas A&M University
    College Station, TX
    booked
  • April 6 - May 25, 2028
    available
  • June 16 - August 11, 2028
    available
  • September 1 - October 20, 2028 Refurbishment at M-AAA
    Kansas City, MO
    booked
  • November 10, 2028 - January 7, 2029 The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art
    Amherst, MA
    booked
  • January 28 - March 16, 2029
    available
  • April 6 - May 25, 2029
    available
  • June 16 - August 11, 2029
    available
  • September 1 - October 20, 2029 Chelsea District Library
    Chelsea, MI
    pending
  • November 10, 2029 - January 7, 2030
    available
  • January 28 - March 16, 2030
    available
  • April 6 - May 25, 2030
    available
  • June 16 - August 11, 2030
    available
  • September 1 - October 20, 2030
    available
  • November 10, 2030 - January 7, 2031
    available
  • January 28 - March 16, 2031
    available

Downloads & Resources

Click HERE to view and download the Factsheet for Finding Alice: Artists Exploring Wonderland featuring Abelardo Morell.