Past exhibitions and digital displays

Past exhibitions and digital displays

While these exhibitions and video displays are no longer on show in our libraries, their stories continue here, ready to be explored at any time.

Exhibitions

These exhibitions drew on our Special Collections to highlight unique stories, themes and perspectives.

Silence is no Refuge

2 Apr 2025 – 19 May 2026

This exhibition celebrated the 40-year career of “master thief” and artist Peter Lyssiotis. Through his hand-crafted artist books and a rich personal archive, it explored how we use memory – and art – to respond to the world.

Hoping Against Hope

17 Apr – 31 Mar 2025

This exhibition invites visitors to consider the power of storytelling to foster hope amidst adversity and conflict in Ukraine.

Treasures from the Monash University Library

10 Feb 2023 – 18 Jan 2024

The Treasures from the Monash University Library exhibition spans 930 years, from 1050 to 1980 and features items from our Special Collections.

The Perfect Migrant

29 Sep 2021 – Jan 2023

In 1940, 3000 internees arrived in Australia and were seen as “perfect” migrants for their easy integration and contributions. But there are no “perfect” forced migrants – only people fleeing persecution, war, hardship and environmental crisis.

This exhibition was inspired by the work of artist and sculptor Erwin Fabian (1915–2020).

You See What She's Saying

28 Feb – 27 Jun 2022

This exhibition focused on women artists working with both artists’ books and visual art. Spanning from the 1970s to 2022, it drew from the Monash University Special Collections, Caulfield Library’s Artists’ Books collection and artworks from the Monash University Collection.

Return

23 Sep 2019 – 20 Jun 2020

After four years of fighting and millions of casualties, World War I finally came to an end. Eight days later Sir John Monash was commissioned to oversee the repatriation of the surviving Australian soldiers and their dependants.

Many struggled to reintegrate in the face of the physical and mental trauma they had survived.

Digital displays

Each of these digital displays highlights research and innovation taking place across Monash University.

The Unintended Edit

2026

This video display explores how AI can breathe new, often unpredictable life into existing design works.

Revitalising Informal Settlements and their Environments (RISE)

2026

RISE is a transdisciplinary research program that aims to transform human and environmental health.

We are well: A digital exhibition

2025

This project examines how art education, wellbeing, and First Nations histories and cultures can enrich learning in schools, universities, and senior communities.

A Virtual Map of Medieval Angkor

2024

Discover the medieval metropolis of Cambodia, Angkor Wat, in 3D with the power of digital archaeology.

Unshackled: the True Convict Story

2024

A first-of-its-kind digital exhibition that reveals a new understanding of the transported convicts’ contribution to the struggle for Australian democracy.

The Endangered Generation

2024

From climate change and inequality to saving Indigenous cultures and species extinction, the Endangered Generation captures the contributions of artists, activists and community leaders rising up to tackle the biggest challenges the human species faces today.

Mind Your Mind

2024

Mind Your Mind exhibition invites visitors to an opportunity to enhance inner and outer awareness and interpersonal connections with other. The exhibition aims to create awareness surrounding consciousness, allowing for reflection.

AllPlay Dance

2024

AllPlay Dance is all about fostering and enabling opportunities for children with disability and developmental challenges to participate in community dance programs.

Discover revolutionary stroke diagnosis technology

2024

Discover how Monash University’s Design Health Collab and Micro-X have revolutionised stroke diagnosis and treatment.

Wunungu Awara: A Digital Exhibition

2023

Digital exhibition featuring a series of animations that are designed to record the past, preserve the present and protect Indigenous languages and knowledge in the future.

Climate Notes

2023

Monash University Library is proud to host Climate Notes in collaboration with researchers and musicians Anna McMichael (violin) and Louise Devenish (percussion).

Ali and the Long Journey to Australia

2023

A stop-motion animation film by Faculty of Education in collaboration with students from refugee backgrounds at Noble Park Primary School in Melbourne’s southeast. Hear their stories, that they were keen to share and to be heard beyond academic papers.

The Merle Ricklefs Collection

2023

An important Southeast Asian research collection named in honour of Professor Merle Ricklefs following his passing in 2020. Watch a short documentary about the collection and its history.

Dunera Stories

2022

In 1940, nearly 3,000 so‑called "enemy aliens" were transported to Australia aboard the HMT Dunera and HMS Queen Mary. This documentary shares some of their stories – while many others remain untold.

Measuring Human Behaviour

2022

This video installation visualises findings from two research programs at Monash Business School: 1) Measuring Human Economic Behaviour from Outer Space, and 2) The Internet as Quantitative Social Science Platform.

Conviction Politics

2022

Conviction Politics is an international digital history project exploring the impact of radicals and rebels transported as political convicts to Australia on their place of exile, and the patterns of collective resistance by the mass of unfree convict men and women to the exploitation of their forced labour.

My Life Now

2022

This digital display used animation to communicate how parental incarceration can affect a child’s mental health, social development, and educational outcomes.