One Way to Display an Exhibit Catalog without Bolting it Down

It’s always nice to display the exhibit catalog if it’s available. It helps further contextualize the works and helps promote a product available in the store. Usually we use four pan head screws on the back cover to bolt down our catalogs (or catalogue whichever you prefer) to an angled wall ped. Recently it was simply not possible to display this way for our Al Farrow exhibit. Longer story short, we decided to make the exhibit catalog free-floating, but we didn’t want it walking off.  We could have tried a big sticker saying “Gallery Copy” on the front of an unjacketed copy, but we had very few of these catalogs and didn’t want to take the chance.

We decided to bulk up the catalog a bit, making it permanently flat, but wanted to avoid adding too much weight. A 3/4″ piece of MDF would simply be to heavy for most people to enjoy. We went with a 1/4″ piece of MDF that was painted the same as the rest of the cases. We left a 1/4″ border on three sides and a full inch along the top where we put the words “Catalogue Available in Store.” This catalog holder would reside on either a bench or window sill and we didn’t want the paint making either, so we put two 1/4″ x 1″ runners along the bottom and left them unpainted. They were also strategically placed so as to give us more depth on the pan head screws we used to anchor the catalog to the holder. Additionally, the runners raise the main board up so the user can more easily get their fingers underneath. That’s it. So far it has stayed put.  What do you do for your unanchored catalogs?