PUZZLES OLD AND NEW: Head Crackers, Patience Provers, and Other Tactile
Teasers
[including more variations on Rubik's cube than I've ever seen before]
EXHIBITION TOUR:
Craft and Folk Art Museum, LA Nov. 26, '86 - Feb. 22, 1987 MIT Museum April 6 - June 15, 1987 Hudson River Museum July 22 - Sept. 27, 1987 Science Museum of Minnesota Oct. 19, '87 - Jan 3, 1988 Ontario Science Center Jan. 25 - March 6, 1988
Accompanied by the book PUZZLES OLD AND NEW: HOW TO MAKE AND SOLVE THEM
by Jerry Slocum and Jack Botermans ($20).
The exhibit discusses
The Art in Puzzles
The Social Experience
Cultural Values
Puzzles in the Industrial Age
Puzzles in Education
Puzzles and Science
It aims "to explore the history, meanings, and design of mechanical
puzzles." The extensive displays categorize puzzles according to their
object:
Put-Together Puzzles
Take-Apart Puzzles
Interlocking Solid Puzzles
Disentanglement Puzzles
Sequential Movement Puzzles
Puzzle Vessels
Dexterity Puzzles
Vanish Puzzles
Impossible Object Puzzles
Folding Puzzles
Puzzles have been lent by collectors and museums around the world. The
exhibit consultants are Benjamin Kilborne and Martin Gardner.
There are hands-on puzzles, but too simple and too few. It's a
wonderful and tantalizing display of puzzles. I was SOOO frustrated not
to be able to handle all the beautiful, enticing pieces. Of course, if
I had been permitted to, I would never leave....
-- Rodney Hoffman