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University Library Services

Subject Guide: Arts and Design

This guide brings together library resources for your studies and research. Use these resources alongside your recommended reading from your tutors to extend your research into new areas.

Exhibition catalogues

  • Museum and gallery websites are brilliant resources to draw on for inspiration and background information for your research. They often have superb sections with information about art and artists, blogs which tell you what’s trending, education sections with valuable resources, and of course are the best place to go to find out about forthcoming exhibitions and events.
  • If you are studying art and design subjects, we strongly recommend that you explore the library's extensive collection of exhibition catalogues. They are an excellent way to access exhibitions that you haven't been able to visit in person.
  • We have an excellent collection of catalogues from many local, national and international galleries. They are a great primary resource to help you discover artists and their work. The exhibition catalogues are located on the lower level of the St Peter’s Library (shelved at 700) allowing you to browse the shelves by artist name.
  • Use Library Search to locate them, under 'Refine your results' select the Exhibition Catalogue resource type. You can search by the artist, gallery, title of the exhibition or by keyword (e.g. David Hockney, Tate Gallery or Sensation: young British artists from the Saatchi Collection).
  • Library Search shows the classmark as starting with '700' - on the shelves you will see them shelved as prefixed with 'CAT'.