New Video Interview Explores ‘Virginia and Vanessa’ Mural in Terrell Library

In a newly released video, WSU Libraries Dean Trevor Bond and WSU Arts Assistant Professor Jiemei “Mei” Lin discuss the collection and inspiration behind a new mural painted by Lin and unveiled last September celebrating the sisterhood and partnership of writer Virginia Woolf and artist Vanessa Bell.

Bond and Lin touch on the Library of Leonard and Virginia Woolf, a one-of-a-kind collection of almost 10,000 books in WSU’s Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections (MASC), what in the collection inspired Lin during her painting of the mural, and the enduring cultural impact of Woolf and Bell.

WSU Arts Assistant Professor Jiemei “Mei” Lin painted the new “Virginia and Vanessa” mural last summer, which was unveiled at the end of September. A celebration of sisters and creative partners Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell, the mural is located in the Terrell Library ground-floor hallway adjacent to Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, home to the Library of Leonard and Virginia Woolf. Photo by Trevor Bond.

The video interview marks the launch of the Pullman Chamber of Commerce’s “This Is Pullman” YouTube series spotlighting local stories. The production team at Dryland Media visually captured the mural and the Woolf collection, with added assistance from JJ Martin, the chamber’s tourism and promotions director, as well as one of Bond’s former students.

Woolf and Bell were key figures in the influential Bloomsbury Group, the collective of British writers, intellectuals, philosophers, and artists in the early 20th century. When Leonard and Virginia Woolf started the Hogarth Press in 1917, the sisters collaborated on its published editions of Woolf’s novels, with Virginia’s collected works featuring Vanessa’s iconic cover designs.

Bond asked Lin if she would be interested in painting a mural based on the Woolf collection as a way to inspire visitors to Terrell Library, home to MASC. Lin saw the first-edition Woolf books with Bell’s unique covers of natural elements, like flowers and leaves, which Lin described as “just beautiful and very free and playful.” She sought to bring that spirit into the mural she began painting last summer in the hallway adjacent to MASC off the Terrell ground-floor atrium.

“It was just such a wonderful moment to have this mural unveiled,” Bond said. “For me, what it represents is a physical manifestation of inspiration.”

“I feel like [I’m] deeply related to those two sisters,” Lin said. “I found that seeing someone’s library in person, it’s almost like you can experience their creative process, and that’s very, very, very special.”

To learn more about the Woolf collection, see the online short-title catalog.