“Made in Toronto” exhibit showcases local scientific materials and their makers

Dave Mazierski stands next to medical illustration exhibit

David Mazierski, associate professor in the Biomedical Communications program, made a series of drawings to demonstrate the carbon dust drawing technique for the Made in Toronto exhibit. The exhibit, which opened April 1, 2016, looks at locally made scientific materials—like medical illustrations, scientific glassware, instruments and tools—all from the perspective of their makers.

In addition to the carbon dust drawings series he created for display, Mazierski facilitated the loan of an original Grant’s Atlas of Anatomy artwork from the Biomedical Communication program’s archives. As a maker, Mazierski, too, is an artifact in the Made in Toronto’s online exhibit. He appears in an interview in which he discusses the artwork for Grant’s Atlas made by medical and scientific illustrators at the University of Toronto from 1939 into the 1940s, and his own contribution of 16 original anatomical illustrations to the 9th edition of Grant’s between 1988 and 1991.

The University of Toronto Scientific Instruments Collection and the Faculty of Information’s Museum Studies program partnered to organize the exhibit and curate the artifacts. The Made in Toronto exhibit continues until next year and is viewable on the third floor of Victoria College, University of Toronto, 73 Queen’s Park Crescent, Toronto.

by Maeve Doyle