Exhibition Honours Vic U Chief Librarian Lisa Sherlock’s Legacy

^{Former Victoria University Chief Librarian Lisa Sherlock.}

By Leslie Shepherd

Colleagues, friends and family gathered on May 26 in the E.J. Pratt Library Reading Room to remember Lisa Sherlock, two years after the death of the Victoria University Library’s chief librarian, and to celebrate the enduring impact she had on the library, its collections and its people.

A special exhibition created for the occasion showcased rare items connected to Claire Pratt, the Canadian artist, poet and editor, and William Blake, the English painter, poet and printmaker, who were two of Sherlock’s curatorial interests.

“I feel every day the love that she put into this place, the care that she had for her staff and the passion that she had for these collections,” Chief Librarian Amy Furness told those gathered. “Her work is woven into this place.”

Among the guests were Sherlock’s widower David Zhu, their daughter Isabel Zhu, her mother Laurel Sherlock, her sister, a nephew, her two brothers and sisters-in-law, a nephew and a cousin.

^{Friends and family of former Victoria University chief librarian Lisa Sherlock gather in the E.J. Pratt Library Reading Room on May 26, 2026. Front row, from left, are Shelley McAulay and Laurel Sherlock. Back row, from left, are Bronwyn Cannon-Sherlock, Nadia Guarino, Jeff Sherlock, Laura Cannon-Sherlock, Robert Cannon-Sherlock and Michelle Zimik. (Photo by Neil Gaikwad)}

Robert Brandeis, who was chief librarian before Sherlock and was a mentor to her, recalled how her interest in Blake began after she attended a major Blake exhibition at the Tate Britain gallery in London in 2000. Among the items on display was a copy of John Milton’s Paradise Lost owned by Blake scholar Michael Phillips and annotated by “WB”—initials that had sparked debate among scholars over whether they stood for and were written by William Blake.

Years later, when Phillips offered the book to Victoria University, Brandeis said he hesitated because of the controversy surrounding the annotations. Sherlock, however, believed the evidence supported Phillips’ attribution and decided to investigate the question herself.

After the library acquired the book, she researched the annotations and published a paper in Blake: An Illustrated Quarterly, arguing they were authentic. Brandeis noted that her conclusions remain unchallenged.

^{Electrotype printing plates based on William Blake’s original plates for Songs of Innocence and Experience are displayed during a memorial exhibition for former Victoria University chief librarian Lisa Sherlock in the E.J. Pratt Library Reading Room on May 26, 2026. (Photo by Neil Gaikwad)}

Phillips, who shared remarks read at the memorial event, said he formed one of the “most enjoyable and collegial relationships of my career” with Sherlock.

“Lisa believed in the evidence that I had gathered in support of the adaptations being genuine,” he said. “Her instinct and the evidence told her that the book and annotations were right. She took a chance and acquired the volume for the collection.”

Brandeis credited Sherlock with helping expand Victoria University’s Blake holdings through acquisitions, exhibitions and collaborations with scholars and collectors. In 2016, she co-curated an exhibition showcasing major additions to the collection.

Beth Shoemaker, head of bibliographic services, highlighted several items acquired in Sherlock’s memory that are now part of Victoria University’s Blake collection. Among them are a pharmacopoeia once owned by Blake, containing what are believed to be the artist’s own folded page corners marking remedies for ailments he may have suffered throughout his life, and a handwritten 1803 receipt documenting the sale of four of Blake’s prints for five pounds and seven shillings.

Shoemaker described the receipt as “one of the most human things that we have” because it offers a glimpse of Blake’s financial struggles and the practical realities behind his artistic life.

The exhibition also featured hand-coloured plates from Edward Young’s Night Thoughts, acquired in 2022 through Blake dealer John Windle, a longtime collaborator of Sherlock and Victoria University Libraries. The illustrated work reflects Blake’s early engagement with large-scale printed books and his distinctive approach to combining image and text.

Also included in the memorial exhibition were electrotype printing plates based on Blake’s original plates for Songs of Innocence and Experience, offering insight into 18th-century print reproduction techniques. Alongside these were early illustrated materials from Blake’s apprenticeship period, showing his study of Renaissance artists and the artistic influences that shaped his early development.

See more photos from the day in our Flickr gallery.