Quinn Dombrowski, AM’06, recently published a book detailing the graffiti that adorn the desks, walls, and whiteboards of the Regenstein Library and other spaces on campus. Crescat Graffiti, Vita Excolatur features a wide variety of photographs that document a small portion of the over 1,700 pieces of graffiti that Dombrowski has found over the last few years. The graffiti in locations across the campus is whimsical, philosophical, and very indicative of the intellectual University of Chicago spirit.
The Chicago Tribune also recently profiled Dombrowski and Crescat Graffiti, Vita Excolatur. From the article:
“Isn’t that great?” she asked, leading me to the B level, the grand finale of our tour. For a long time she declined to photograph bathroom graffiti, she explained, preferring graffiti available to all. But the first stall in the men’s room on the B level was so extraordinary she can no longer ignore it. She gestured for me to go in. She waited outside.I opened the door to the first stall, and my eye went straight to the right wall. It resembled one of those blackboards in “A Beautiful Mind,” a vast, intricate, chaotic sprawl of equations and phrases and letters and symbols, stretching the length of the stall.
Each piece appeared to be in a different handwriting. “I Ayn(t) impressed with all these Rand(om) thoughts,” was followed with, “You’re so Jung and immature,” which led, after many more literary puns (each numbered by its author), to the following: “This has all been said before.” At which point, the conversation that cascaded down the bathroom stall cut off and began anew at a different spot. I walked out. Dombrowski stood against a wall, smiling.
“Wow,” I said.
“I know,” she said. “I love this school.”
To read the full article in the Chicago Tribune please click here, and for more information on Crescat Graffiti, Vita Excolatur and Dombrowski please click here