Swiss National Library

Switzerland is our subject

Every book, every newspaper and every periodical that has appeared in Switzerland since 1848. Everything published abroad that deals with Switzerland or its people. The complete works of Swiss writers and translators. The National Library collects printed and electronic publications from and about Switzerland, and ensures that they are preserved and remain accessible.
The National Library also incorporates the Swiss Literary Archives, which hold and catalogue the literary estates of authors from each of the country’s four language regions. The Library’s Prints and Drawings Department archives visual documents such as photographs, postcards and posters.
The Swiss National Library’s exhibitions shed light on individual areas of its holdings, and offer an insight into Switzerland’s rich written cultural heritage.

Audio tour of the National Library - SILENT RUMBLINGS

Audiowalk

Is there a more wonderful image of peace and tranquillity than a library's reading room? But even when utterly immersed in a book, we readers are audible beings, and beneath the apparent silence of the National Library, there is a whole universe of sound waiting to be discovered. Come by and press play to start our unique audio walk.

Swiss National Library

Colour Space

until Fr, 24.01.2025

The National Library’s exhibition area is to be transformed into a “Colour Space” for several weeks. From 9 November 2024 to 24 January 2025, the NL is presenting prints from Edition VFO (Verein für Originalgraphik) and from its Prints and Drawings department. The works will be juxtaposed in seven thematic areas.

The exhibition “Colour Space” allows you to experience colour in two ways. On the one hand, the selection of works reflects the different ways that artists and printmakers from various regions of Switzerland use colour as a formative and form-giving element in their graphic oeuvre. On the other, the “Colour Space” offers a unique sensory experience and the chance to engage with a wide range of monochrome and polychrome graphic art.

Seven themes will guide you through the exhibition – colour spectrum, colour shade, colour library, colour palette, colour mix, colour material and colour variation. They shed light on the many and varied possibilities offered by the use of colour in printmaking processes and in the creation of graphic art.

The exhibition “Colour Space” has been made possible thanks to a generous donation from Edition VFO (Verein für Originalgraphik) in Zurich to the Prints and Drawings Department at the Swiss National Library. More than 50 contemporary prints from Edition VFO will be presented in a colourful dialogue alongside pieces from the Prints and Drawings Department collection, spanning the 18th to 21st centuries.