The Mouse Mansion: building homes for childhood in a picture book

Abstract

This article discusses the book The Mouse Mansion: Sam and Julia, by Dutch artist and author Karina Schaapman, whose illustrations are photographs of dollhouses and miniatures built by the author. It presents thematic and aesthetic aspects of the book, associating artistic process and childhood, through the playful characteristics in the making of the visual narrative and the associations made by the author between her childhood memories and her vision of a world built for children, which underpins the conception of the work. These reflections are based on writings by Walter Benjamin on the connections between childhood, materiality, and toys; by Lev Vygotsky on imagination and creation, and on artist's books and children's books by Amir Brito Cadôr and Eliane Debus. Taking into account the material aspects of the production of the images in the book, the article proposes that the contact with the work in question can encourage playful and artistic practices through the creative appropriation of everyday objects.