Oliver Jeffers: 15 Years of Picturing Books, at Akron Art Museum

If you’re like me and spent a large part of the last twenty or so years reading books to children, then you’re going to be familiar with Oliver Jeffers. Jeffers was born in Australia and raised in Northern Ireland.  He is an award-winning artist, illustrator, and writer who has sold more than ten million picture books. His books Here We Are, What We’ll Build and The Day the Crayons Quit are big with my five-year-old, and like many of his other books too, are part of many pre-K and Kindergarten classrooms the world over.

Noted for his strong storytelling and his colorful and expressive style, Jeffers makes a type of picture book that is not only fun to read but is wonderful to look at. This exhibit, Oliver Jeffers: 15 Years of Picturing Books, on view at the Akron Museum through July 27th is an intimate look at the artist and his process.

Rough drafts, unused pages and what look to be nearly final drafts of the interior pages of several of Jeffers books are framed and on display throughout the gallery. Also, on display are most if not all of Jeffers complete books along with a seating are so you can read through them. Being able to compare the in-progress pages on the gallery wall to the interior pages of the included books is one of the strengths of this show. Bookmaking of any kind is a multilayered process and the opportunity to see inside the process makes for a fun exhibit and interesting. It helps put all of Jeffers talents on display.

Stuck Print with Whale, is a digital image of pages 20 and 21 from Jeffers’ book “Stuck.” Stuck is the exuberant and far-fetched story of boy named Floyd who keeps getting things stuck in a tree. On this page he is just about to throw a whale at a tree in order to shake loose the lighthouse he had previously gotten stuck up in the tree. In the image Floyd is in the background trying to shake loose the lighthouse from the cliffs edge. In the foreground the whale is out in front of Floyds house asking, “What are you doing?”.

There are complex ideas and actions being described in these images. However, Jeffers’ approach is paired down and straight forward. There aren’t a lot of extraneous details. Rather, enough information and imagery are shared to relate the story and the rest is insinuated. However, that does not mean the artwork is in anyway “simple”. There are complex textures, and lots of colors painted with unique and distinct marks.

The Great Paper Caper tells a mysterious story of a town whose trees keep being cut down. Through some investigation the forest animals and local people discover it is the bear. Who is cutting down the trees to make paper so that they can try to win a paper airplane competition. Several images from the book’s creation are on display. Three of the included pages are line art without color. The book jacket art is included as well as version of the books cover. In the cover art we see in the background an “investigative” beaver holding up a magnifying glass and look at a paper airplane while an owl looks on. In the foreground a large brown bear wearing a red knit hat and leaning on axe stands in the middle three tree stumps. Jeffers unique sense of humor and style really come through in this piece. The animals have normal bodies but all feature thin and long stick-like legs. The bear looks out of the page at you while the two other animals are focused on their chosen task. The whole composition is done in a white snow-covered field with a tan colored sky. The choice of using muted color with dashes of bright help bring the story more out in the open for us all to better consider.

Several panels form the books The Day the Crayons Quit and The Day the Crayons Came Home are featured in the exhibition.  The Day the Crayons Quit, written by Drew Daywalt and illustrated by Jeffers tells the story of a box of crayons writing letters complaining about how their owner uses and abuses them to make his drawings. Jeffers drawings cleverly help express the crayons feelings.

One strong on example on display is a drawing about the gray crayon. It features a small gray crayon looking up at a page filled with an elephant, hippopotamus, rhino and a whale. There is so much gray being used in all these featured animals you can see why the crayon might complain about overuse. The marks by Jeffers to color the imagery echo that of a child. They are more like a variety of straight and scribbled lines used to fill out the forms of the animals rather than complete opaque swaths of color. This give the piece a scratchy, but expressive appearance.

Oliver Jeffers work has reached millions of readers around the world. The Akron Art Museum’s display of such an abundance of his work is worth the visit for any literature and illustration enthusiast.

Oliver Jeffers: 15 Years of Picturing Books
January 11 – July 27, 2025
Akron Art Museum
1 South High Street
Akron, OH 44308
330.376.9186