Mary Butts letters: performance, archive, exhibit

English class lost in UVic Special Collections. Exploring modernist author Mary Butts's letters to Douglas Goldring as performance. Creating digital exhibit.

[Mary Butts letters: performance, archive, exhibit @UVicButts]

And that's a wrap. The curtain falls.

[Mary Butts letters: performance, archive, exhibit @UVicButts]

During the #holidays this winter, don’t miss the digital exhibit on the letters of writer Mary Butts at @Uvic
- a performance until 5pm on #Christmas Eve! #modernism #books @UVicHumanities @UVicEnglish @UVicLib @UVicSC @timescolonist https://t.co/Btb2UV6yqo

[Mary Butts letters: performance, archive, exhibit @UVicButts]

Check it out!

[Mary Butts letters: performance, archive, exhibit @UVicButts]

And finally, listen to some of her letters read aloud, and have some of your questions answered in our Q&A section. https://t.co/4ptVkcc2CR

[Mary Butts letters: performance, archive, exhibit @UVicButts]

A favourite line from Butts's letters to Goldring? Gossip, of course. Orgies, or lack of. Letter sent from Paris, late 1920s: "For the rest, my dear, silly talk about orgies written you nor I nor she [Goldring's wife] have ever been on or ever would go in, don’t cut much ice."

[Mary Butts letters: performance, archive, exhibit @UVicButts]

Pop up photo exhibition (Until Dec 1): Mary Butts and her world. With permission from the Mary Butts Estate and McPherson & Company. And, the first time out of the archive, a sketch by Jean Cocteau and Mary Butts
https://t.co/BVW4jVSclY @msatweet @UVicSC @UVicEnglish @MModernity

[Mary Butts letters: performance, archive, exhibit @UVicButts]

Much playing out in the exhibit. A display emerging about opium, of course. And why not play Butts's Freud Game (AWM). What comes to mind when you think of Mary Butts? Post a word, phrase, quote, image, or something else. Or reply here and we can post it.
https://t.co/SvU3OjMYo4

[Mary Butts letters: performance, archive, exhibit @UVicButts]

Thinking about all the blank pages in the archives, and all the digital scans of these blank pages. Our first full exhibit page (with some spaces still to fill): all the blank pages of Butts's letters to Goldring.
https://t.co/lz5HTZIFrU
What do you see on a blank page?

[Mary Butts letters: performance, archive, exhibit @UVicButts]

A previous English 436a student, Scott Matthews, just published this great piece riffing on Mary Butts's letters during Covid lockdown. https://t.co/t8t5icLjbt @MModernity @UVicSC @UVicEnglish @UVicEnglGrad