The Cooper Union Library presents an exhibition by Tammy Nguyen, a 2007 alumna of The Cooper Union School of Art, featuring her series of artists books, A Comedy for Mortals. This is the first public exhibition of Nguyen’s latest Paradise book, and the first time the complete trilogy has been shown together. A Comedy for Mortals will be on view in the Library’s atrium from June 27 through September 26, 2025.

Gallery hours are Monday through Thursday from 9 am – 5 pm.

Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy serves as a framework for Nguyen’s examination of the history of the Cold War and relations between the United States and other countries, particularly those in the Non-Aligned Movement. Regional histories and events are used to illustrate the neocolonial exploitation of Asian and African countries by Western powers. Nguyen’s work combines sculptural elements with screen-prints, handset type, and hand-made and hand-marbled papers. The Inferno (2023) includes nine books, corresponding to Dante’s nine circles of Hell. Displayed in the Library are three titles from that group: A Welter of Language, Snake in the Grass, and Open Eyes. In Mine, Purgatory (2024), Nguyen combines seven accordion-fold books in a sculptural stack referencing “Mount Purgatory” from Dante’s text. Tammy Nguyen’s artist book exploring Dante’s Paradiso is inspired by the idea that Dante’s ascent into the celestial heavens is a journey of expanding knowledge, where learning is like eating the “bread of angels”. The Inferno and Purgatory books have previously been shown at exhibitions in Seoul and London, in 2023 and 2024. The recent books were made in conjunction with Nguyen’s large-scale paintings on display concurrently at the Lehmann Maupin gallery in Chelsea (June 5 to August 15). 

To accompany and contextualize Nguyen’s work, The Cooper Union Library also presents a related display, “Responding to Dante: Illustrations, Adaptions, and Subversions of the Divine Comedy.” Drawing from the Library’s rich collections, the exhibit showcases a range of responses to Dante’s epic—from iconic 19th-century editions illustrated by Gustave Doré to bold modern reinterpretations by artists like Tom Phillips and Cooper alumnus Seymour Chwast A’51.

Tammy Nguyen is a multimedia artist whose practice encompasses painting, drawing, printmaking, and book making. She received a B.F.A. from The Cooper Union in 2007 and a Fulbright scholarship to study lacquer painting in Vietnam in 2008. Since earning her M.F.A. from Yale in 2013, Nguyen has received numerous awards and had her work exhibited at ICA Boston, MOMA PS1, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Sarasota Art Museum, among many others. She serves on the faculty at Wesleyan University and is represented by Lehmann Maupin. In addition to her practice in traditional fine arts, Nguyen is the founder of Passenger Pigeon Press. 

The exhibition is made possible by the Lehmann Maupin gallery and is organized for the Library by James Mitchell and Mackenzie Williams. Additional support for related programming is provided by The Cooper Union School of Art. A public talk by Tammy Nguyen will be held in September at Cooper Union.