Nieuw / ganzen-spel 1832 - 1850

Curator: This image looks like it was pulled straight from a game night in a Victorian parlor. So charmingly intricate! Editor: It is rather captivating. What we're observing here is a print titled "Nieuw / ganzen-spel" dating from somewhere between 1832 and 1850, made with ink, as a form of graphic art. "Nieuw / ganzen-spel", for our non-Dutch speakers, roughly translates to New Game of Goose. Curator: Oh, a game board! I can totally see the whimsicality and all these funny images. The line work has this sort of innocent clumsiness to it that makes me smile. Like, who's the guy hanging upside down there by space 58?! And what does it all MEAN?! Editor: Well, "Game of the Goose," as you might know, had origins dating back centuries to Renaissance Europe. This particular print would have provided an engaging activity, maybe even offering insights into societal mores. Curator: Mores...or maybe just geese! I feel such warmth looking at this. Not in an academic, stuffy kind of way, more like a cozy evening playing games with my quirky family. The kind you think only you have until you binge watch reality TV. Editor: I appreciate your sentimental perspective. However, let’s consider its deeper layers. A game of chance can reflect historical anxieties of fate, social mobility. It may even give the players an impression that you can navigate through life's various challenges – as symbolically encoded through each position of this board. Consider, for instance, this jail near space 52 – this imagery of enclosure evokes a period’s sense of justice or captivity. Curator: Imprisonment or losing the game. Ha! To each their own meaning. Though you are making me look more carefully at what these spaces might stand for in a larger symbolic sense. It certainly encourages you to ask, what did these images mean to people almost two centuries ago? Editor: And that’s a significant point to ponder, really. How an object, seemingly so lighthearted on its surface, contains within it these multiple strands, inviting both playful interaction and also reflection. Curator: So next time my family is screaming over Monopoly, I'll just have to remind them they are playing out an age-old symbolic struggle for their very souls! Editor: Absolutely, though perhaps a lighter interpretation is best left for game night itself.