MUNCIE, IN.- The Ball State University Museum of Art will feature Fantasy and Fairy Tales and Almost Alice: New Illustrations of Wonderland by Maggie Taylor from Jan. 16 to March 22. Although the themes sound similar, these two new exhibitions are actually very different.

Before they were cleaned up for children, most fairy tales were rather grim stories full of violence, vengeance, and few happy endings. Fantasy and Fairy Tales will feature prints from the museum's collection that depict the original nature of these stories.

The exhibition includes prints from female artists Paula Rego, Kiki Smith and Peregrine Honig. Other artists represented include Francisco de Goya, James Ensor, Emil Nolde, and Pablo Picasso.

"What unites many of these prints is aquatint. It's used by Francisco de Goya in the late 18th century and Kiki Smith in the 21st century," said Peter Blume, director of the museum.

Almost Alice: New Illustrations of Wonderland is a collection of original images created by Maggie Taylor. The exhibition features 45 digital-inkjet prints made by scanning original 19th century photographs, line drawings, and illustrations. Taylor then combined them with her own landscape photography, resulting in images that are inventive and ironic, a visual surrealism. Taylor's images will be included in a new edition of the classic story "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll.

"What makes this exhibition interesting is the way the artist combines Lewis Carroll's 19th century sensibilities—his fantasy as well as his political satire—and the photomedia of that era, such as daguerreotypes, with the digital manipulation capabilities of our own era," Blume said. "By doing so, Taylor's presentation makes Carroll's story meaningful to a whole new audience."

Almost Alice: New Illustrations of Wonderland by Maggie Taylor is organized by Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, and toured by Curatorial Assistance, Pasadena, California.