Mannequins in Museums : Power and Resistance on Display

Mannequins in Museums is a collection of historical and contemporary case studies that examine how mannequins are presented in exhibitions and shows that, as objects used for storytelling, they are not neutral objects.

Demonstrating that mannequins have long histories of being used to promote colonialism, consumerism, and racism, the book shows how these histories inform their use. It also engages readers in a conversation about how historical narratives are expressed in museums through mannequins as surrogate forms. Written by a select group of curators and art historians, the volume provides insight into a variety of museum contexts, including art, history, fashion, anthropology and wax. Drawing on exhibition case studies from North America, South Africa, and Europe, each chapter discusses the pedagogical and aesthetic stakes involved in representing racial difference and cultural history through mannequins. As a whole, the book will assist readers to understand the history of mannequins and their contemporary use as culturally relevant objects.

Mannequins in Museums will be compelling reading for academics and students in the fields of museum studies, art history, public history, anthropology and visual and cultural studies. It should also be essential reading for museum professionals who are interested in rethinking mannequin display techniques.

Bridget R. Cooks is Associate Professor in the Department of Art History and the Department of African American Studies at the University of California, Irvine, and Associate Director of the Institute and Museum of California Art. Her research focuses on African American artists, Black visual culture, and museum criticism. Cooks has worked as a museum educator and curator for several exhibitions. She is author of the book Exhibiting Blackness: African Americans and the American Art Museum (University of Massachusetts Press, 2011). Some of her other publications can be found in Afterall, Afterimage, American Studies, Aperture, and American Quarterly. She is currently completing her next book, Norman Rockwell: The Civil Rights Paintings.

Jennifer J. Wagelie is the Academic Liaison at the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art at the University of California, Davis. She received her PhD in art history from the Graduate Center, City University of New York. Her area of study is the art of the Pacific Islands, specifically Māori art and material culture, with other research interests in the history of museums, collections and exhibitions. She has worked at the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC and the Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University and taught at UC Santa Cruz and CSU, Sacramento. She has also held postdoctoral fellowships in the anthropology departments of the University of British Columbia, Vancouver and the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History.