Did you ever read one of her Poems backward, because the plunge from the front overturned you? I sometimes (often have, many times) have – A something overtakes the Mind –

Emily Dickinson

A Somthing Overtakes the Mind

a project by Ligia Bouton and Matt Donovan

for the Emily Dickinson Museum, Amherst

August 1 - December 21, 2025

This exhibition was made possible through collaborations with the Emily Dickinson Museum, and the generous support of Amherst College, Five Colleges Inc., Mount Holyoke College, and Smith College.

Many myths, legends, and assumptions surround Emily Dickinson and continue to shape understandings of not only her life and work, but also the thousands of household artifacts in the collections of the Emily Dickinson Museum. Through explorations of domestic objects, text, and community testimonials, this multimedia art installation examines Emily Dickinson’s legacy, and the ways in which we continue to forge myriad versions of the poet. It considers how the act of collecting objects and assembling fragments of the past create meaning and serve as vectors for storytelling, and it asks what acts of biography and literary analysis reveal about the self.

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