ALLEGANY, N.Y. – An exhibition of comic art organized and curated by The Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts has traveled to Salt Lake City, Utah, for a multi-venue exhibition. Ye Bookes of Cerebus: the Comic Art of Dave Sim and Gerhard opened at three locations on Aug. 21. Half of the 70 works in the exhibition will be on display in the lower urban room of the City Library of Salt Lake City’s main branch, with the other 35 works divided between the two locations of Night Flight Comics, the comic book store organizing the traveling exhibition.
Ye Bookes of Cerebus originally opened at the Quick Center in the fall of 2005.
“The exhibition had a great run at the Quick Center, and was embraced enthusiastically by the regional community as well as the legions of Cerebus and comic art fans from around the country,” noted Jason Trimmer, curator of the exhibition. “For the artist’s talk, we had individuals who drove in from as far away as Massachusetts, New Jersey, Minnesota and even Dallas, Texas.”
Trimmer also noted that shortly after Sim visited St. Bonaventure for the talk, he donated an entire run of the 16 volume Cerebus series to the University’s Friedsam Memorial Library – expanding its already impressive collection of graphic novels.
Additionally, Trimmer said that the Quick Center has wanted to make more of its self-produced exhibitions available for travel to other institutions to increase its exposure, as well as to highlight the quality of its exhibitions. “This exhibition and its run in Utah will get the name of the university out there in front of the public and show that we are committed to innovative exhibitions,” he said. “With an increasing number of prominent comic art shows at major museums around the country, notably the Masters of American Comics exhibition that opened in Los Angeles in 2005, it was a timely opportunity for the Quick Center to mount this exhibition. High-quality comic art shows can be done by smaller organizations, benefiting both the organizations and the medium.”
Mimi Cruz of Night Flight Comics had been independently organizing Dave Sim and Gerhard’s appearance at the 2006 Great Salt Lake Book Festival and thought the exhibition would make a great addition to the events surrounding Sim and Gerhard’s appearance there.
“Mimi Cruz and Alan Carroll’s Night Flight Comics have been major supporters of Cerebus for years and years, so I couldn’t be more pleased that the ‘passing of the baton’ has taken place from Jason Trimmer and the Quick Center,” said Cerebus writer and co-artist Dave Sim. “Jason put Ye Bookes of Cerebus together almost single-handedly with the same world-class standards, care and attention that mark all of the Quick Center’s exhibitions, and his work alone deserves much wider national exposure in my view.”