The Rosenbach Museum and Library of Philadelphia has a pair of exhibitions in place this fall. Continuing until January 17, 2010, is Too Many Thoughts to Chew: A Sendak Stew. It includes 40 original illustrations by Maurice Sendak showing how food can bring families and friends together. Continuing until June 6, 2010, is Moore Adventures in Wonderland. This exhibition features items from the Rosenbach's collections of Lewis Carroll and Marianne Moore and discovers unexpected connections between the two writers. Here is a link to the Rosenbach Museum.

An exhibit at the Traffic Zone Gallery in Minneapolis may provide some ideas as to what to do with your common, virtually worthless old books. A group of artists has "destroyed" their old books, yet through the destruction something new and beautiful arises. Pages may be ripped from a book, cut up and reassembled. Some books are painted over. One artist gouged holes out of his books. Yet from all of this destruction come new works, visual art rather than textual art. For an example, click the thumbnail image above to see what Helmut Lohr has created from a musical score. We don't recommend you do this with your Gutenberg or First Folio, but for those common books that no will ever buy or read again anyway, this is a most attractive alternative. The name of the exhibition is X Libris and it continues at the Traffic Zone Gallery in Minneapolis' Warehouse District through October 15. Here is a Link.