FINDLAY, Ohio — The new one-of-a-kind exhibit at the Mazza Museum gives visitors a chance to see the entire creative process of making children's books.
The Illustration for Dummies, which just opened this week, dose not only show finished artwork for published childrens books, but also shows the dummy books.
Dummy Books are essentially the first draft for illustrated books, and this new exhibit, for the first time, shows this usually unseen rough art usually designated for publishers and editors.
Visitors can see first hand how the creative process can change aspects of a beloved children's book before its publication, like the change of a main character from a mouse to a frog, or even changing the ethnicity of an entire family featured in a book.
Much of this art has never been seen by the public.
"To see those changes that were made, to see the behind the scenes of the book. And in the case of a few like Blair Lent's Elephant house, Blair Lent was a Caldecott medalist, that book never got published. So, that is your chance to come see it now," said Dan Chudzinski, Mazza Museum curator.
Illustrations for Dummies will be on display on the Wilson Gallery at the Mazza Museum for the next two years.
