I love libraries. I vividly remember running up the stone steps of the Camden Country Courthouse where my hometown library was housed. Saturday, morning was story hour at the library and I remember sitting cross-legged on the floor at the feet of the librarian as she read a book aloud. When I got a little older I looked forward to the Book Mobile showing up outside of school and on Court House Square. It was so much fun to enter the cramped space of the Book Mobile and be surrounded by hundreds and hundreds of books all ready to be checked out and taken home. I continue to use libraries today. I am particularly fond of the Cooper-Hewitt – National Design Museum Library and The Picture Collection of the New York Public Library. I never start a new design project without checking out these fabulous resources in New York City.
So it is with great pride and pleasure I can announce The Kenneth Spencer Research Library at The University of Kansas will be the recipient of all of the original art and designs I created for my pop-up books as well as over 150 watercolor renderings of various design projects I’ve worked on since I opened Chuck Fischer Studio, Inc. in 1984.
I’m thrilled the work will be preserved and available for research in such an esteemed institution.
The Kenneth Spencer Research Library is home to some of the rarest and most precious volumes and materials in the world. The collections encompass recorded human knowledge ranging from cuneiform tablets written four millennia ago, to the imagined far-future landscapes of science fiction authors being published today.
Spencer Research Library is open to everyone and welcomes the public as well as researchers and scholars from all academic disciplines.
Here are a few samples of the watercolors I created for various design commissions.
Dining Room – Greenwich, Connecticut
Painted Valance for Oscar de la Renta
Floor created for Mrs. Henry “Sister” Parish
