Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie, A Tale of Love and Fallout

Produced in collaboration with students at Parsons the New School for Design

Radioactive tells the story of an artist and writer who drew on the vast collections of The New York Public Library to create a new work of art. Lauren Redniss was a Fellow at the Library’s Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers in 2008–09, where she worked on a book of visual art and narrative nonfiction called Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie, A Tale of Love and Fallout (HarperCollins, December 2010).

This exhibition traces a library researcher’s creative process—offering just one example of the many ways in which The New York Public Library’s treasures inspire fresh ideas, scholarship, and art. As an extension of this process, the Library collaborated with a talented group of students at Parsons the New School for Design who, with Redniss as their guide, created an innovative website showcasing a dazzling array of new works inspired by the visual and narrative universe of Radioactive. These four videos are just some of the works on view. Enjoy them here, or immerse yourself further on the Radioactive website.