Information as Spectacle: Second World War Exhibitions by the Ministry of Information

The Victory Over Japan exhibition opened during the heady days following the Allied victory in the Second World War. As one of a series of exhibitions organized by the Ministry of Information (MoI), with pioneering designer Misha Black, the Japan show attracted over one and a half million visitors in just four months. The MoI exhibitions were considered a primary means of wartime communication for the government, and Black's pre-war ties to continental figures like Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius via the MARS Group ensured that the propagandistic successes of the progressive exhibition designs of the 1930s were seized upon for the war effort. Japan combined simulated jungle-like conditions with modernist idioms, and used mixed media displays to create an immersive, sensory exhibition that could convince the public of difficult foreign policies through the construction of an 'official' narrative. This paper analyses Japan and other MoI exhibitions as a means of reflecting on the impact and influence of wartime exhibition design techniques. I argue that not only did the field of mixed media exhibitions develop throughout the war, but that it contributed in significant ways to the blossoming of modern forms of design and display in the post-war cultural arena.