What Is The Surrealist Book at MoMA, and How Do You Visit Before It Closes January 23?

Short answer

The Surrealist Book: Tomorrow Lives in Mirrors is a MoMA exhibition about how Surrealist artists and writers turned the bound book into an art form, and it runs on Floor 3 through January 23, 2027. It is built around a gift of rare artists’ books from the Helen and Sam Zell Collection, shown at MoMA for the first time. MoMA is at 11 West 53 Street in Manhattan and opens daily at 10:30 a.m.; admission is $30, with free entry for New York State residents on Friday evenings, 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., with an advance reservation.

Key facts

• What: “The Surrealist Book: Tomorrow Lives in Mirrors” – an exhibition tracing the roles of Surrealist books from the 1920s through the 1950s and ’60s
• Where: MoMA, Floor 3, 11 West 53 Street, Manhattan, New York, NY 10019; the main entrance is on 53rd Street, close to Sixth Avenue
• When: opened in early October 2026; on view through January 23, 2027
• Hours: Sunday to Thursday 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Friday 10:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.; closed Thanksgiving and Christmas
• Admission: $30 adults, $22 seniors, $17 students; members free; free for New York State residents on Friday evenings 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. with an advance reservation (Uniqlo Friday Nights)
• Core of the show: a gift of rare artists’ books from the Helen and Sam Zell Collection, presented for the first time at MoMA
• Artists named by the museum: André Breton, Claude Cahun, Salvador Dalí, Paul Éluard, Max Ernst, Toyen and Unica Zürn, among 61 artists listed for the exhibition
• Curators: Jodi Hauptman, The Robert Lehman Foundation Chief Curator of Drawings and Prints, and Starr Figura, Curator, with Kolleen Ku and Emma Kang

What is The Surrealist Book about?

According to MoMA, the exhibition looks at the book as “a perfect vehicle for subversive experimentation” for Surrealist artists and writers. The museum describes books bound with shards of shattered glass, a manifesto enshrined in polished metal, and love poems merging with solarized photographs. The show traces the movement from its foundational impact in the 1920s, through the 1930s and ’40s, to Surrealist books made well into the 1950s and ’60s.

What does the Zell Collection add?

The exhibition is built around what MoMA calls a transformative gift of rare artists’ books from the Helen and Sam Zell Collection, presented at the museum for the first time. The museum lists special editions printed on unusual papers or enhanced with supplementary materials, unique maquettes, sketchbooks filled with collages and fantastical drawings, and sculptural bindings that turn books into hybrid, interactive objects. One quoted idea carries the whole room: the Surrealists insisted that books “are doors,” and whoever “opens them is immediately thrown into a higher realm.”

Which artists and works should you look for?

MoMA names André Breton, Claude Cahun, Salvador Dalí, Paul Éluard, Max Ernst, Toyen and Unica Zürn as central figures, and its online checklist lists 61 artists, including Roberto Matta, Wifredo Lam and Slavko Kopač. The cover image of the exhibition materials is Unica Zürn’s “Orakel und Spektakel, IV. Buch” (1960), a book of anagrams and drawings that combines ink, torn-and-pasted paper, dried plant material, feathers and a playing card – a single object that shows how far a “book” can stretch.

How do you look at a book you cannot open?

This is a method we suggest, not the museum’s or the artists’.

1. Read the binding first. Ask what material the cover is made of and why an artist would choose glass, metal or torn paper for it.
2. Treat each page opening as a composition. The spread visible in the case was chosen by someone; ask what pairing of image and text it stages.
3. Notice collaboration. Many Surrealist books join a writer and an artist; try to name what each one contributes.
4. Compare dates. A 1920s book and a 1960s book in the same room show how long the Surrealist sensibility persisted.
5. Write one sentence about what makes this object a book before reading the label, then compare your sentence with it.

How do you plan the visit?

MoMA opens at 10:30 a.m. every day; it closes at 5:30 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and at 8:30 p.m. on Friday. Admission is $30, with reduced rates for seniors ($22) and students ($17), and free entry for members. New York State residents can reserve free tickets for Friday evenings, 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. The exhibition is on Floor 3. On Thursday, November 5, the museum runs “Interpreting MoMA: The Surrealist Book,” a gallery experience for visitors with disabilities, from 5:00 to 7:30 p.m. in the Education Center on Floor 1. An exhibition catalogue edited by Jodi Hauptman and Starr Figura (hardcover, 272 pages) accompanies the show.

Why do Surrealist books still matter for contemporary art?

The exhibition shows the book treated as an art object in its own right – a format where text, image, material and binding carry equal weight. That way of working, where the form of the object is part of the meaning, runs through a great deal of later artists’ books and installation practices. Looking slowly at one object and asking what its materials are doing is close to what we call cultural mediation (https://antre.art/blog/what-is-cultural-mediation/). Adaptive cultural mediation – Antre’s own term, not a MoMA service – describes how an app can support that process in front of the work (https://antre.art/blog/what-is-adaptive-cultural-mediation/).

More New York guides from Antre

• Roy Lichtenstein: Like New at the Whitney: https://antre.art/blog/roy-lichtenstein-like-new-whitney-how-to-visit/
• Arthur Jafa: I Am Tony at the New Museum: https://antre.art/blog/arthur-jafa-i-am-tony-new-museum-how-to-visit/

FAQ

Is The Surrealist Book free to visit?

No. General admission to MoMA is $30, and the exhibition is included with admission. New York State residents can book free entry on Friday evenings, 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., with an advance reservation.

When does the exhibition close?

It is on view through January 23, 2027.

Where in the museum is it?

On Floor 3 of MoMA at 11 West 53 Street, Manhattan; the main entrance is on 53rd Street, close to Sixth Avenue.

Do I need to know Surrealism before I go?

No. The method above works without prior knowledge: start from the materials of one object, and let the context arrive after.

Is MoMA a commercial gallery?

No. It is a museum, not a commercial gallery (https://antre.art/blog/what-is-a-commercial-contemporary-art-gallery/) – the works on view are not for sale.

About Antre

Antre is building an app that gives artworks their context, starting with New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. Join the waiting list at https://antre.art

Sources

• MoMA exhibition page: https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/5918
• MoMA locations, hours and admission: https://www.moma.org/visit/