Now, for the first time in Europe, Devlin is turning that expansive practice inward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Es Devlin: Other Worlds<\/strong>, on view at London\u2019s Design Museum from 2 October 2026 to 4 April 2027<\/strong>, offers an unusually intimate view of one of Britain\u2019s most internationally recognised artists and designers. Developed in close collaboration with Devlin, the exhibition brings together artworks, installations, films, models, drawings, archival material and personal objects spanning 30 years of work across sculpture, stage design, music, language, architecture and large-scale public installations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But this is not simply a retrospective. Devlin has effectively moved her studio \u2014 and much of her archive \u2014 into the museum, transforming the exhibition into an immersive journey through the ways her ideas are formed, tested and eventually translated into experiences encountered by millions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Devlin describes the project simply: \u201cI am moving my studio and practically my entire 30-year archive into the Design Museum for this show.\u201d She calls it an \u201cimmense privilege\u201d to share her working process with visitors and to create a large-scale library installation inside a museum for the first time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Visitors begin their journey in Devlin\u2019s world inside a replica of her South London studio. Shelves are filled with her books, objects and maquettes, while her desk is covered with drawings, tools and paints. A projection-mapped film narrated by Devlin brings the room to life before visitors move into the wider exhibition, following projects that began in this studio and grew into some of her most ambitious works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Spanning the length of the gallery walls, A 50-Year Archive \u2014 Parts I and II<\/strong> brings together early sketches, paintings, collages, diaries and prints that Devlin produced at school, university and art college and continued to make throughout her practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The archive demonstrates Devlin\u2019s enduring love of drawing and reveals how projects that eventually become monumental sculptures, theatrical environments or public installations often begin with something considerably smaller: a line on paper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the centre of the exhibition\u2019s archival narrative is A 30-Year Desk<\/strong>, a newly conceived installation that transforms documentation into an artwork in its own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A series of concentric circular desks holds hundreds of archival objects, including concept drawings, photographs, personal objects and ephemera, many of which have never previously been exhibited publicly. More than 30 intricate models and maquette-scale recreations reveal projects at different stages of Devlin\u2019s design process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The models include works that subsequently became major public sculptures, stage designs and choral installations, several of which have never before been displayed in Britain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Among the projects represented are her set design for The Lehman Trilogy<\/strong> in 2018, Forest of Us<\/strong>, presented in Miami in 2021, her work for the London 2012 Olympic Games Closing Ceremony<\/strong>, the 2022 Super Bowl halftime show<\/strong>, and kinetic stage sculptures created for concert tours by some of the world\u2019s most celebrated musicians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Seen collectively, the material allows visitors to trace the evolution of Devlin\u2019s practice and the recurring ideas connecting seemingly disparate commissions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of Devlin\u2019s celebrated installations returns to London in a transformed form.<\/p>\n\n\n\n First presented outside Tate Modern in September 2022, Come Home Again<\/strong> originally took the form of a cross-section of the dome of St Paul\u2019s Cathedral, its architectural silhouette illuminated with cut-out drawings of endangered moths, birds, beetles, wildflowers, fish and fungi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Commissioned by Cartier and created with guidance from the London Wildlife Trust, the work connected one of London\u2019s most recognisable architectural landmarks with the fragile ecosystems surrounding it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For the Design Museum, Come Home Again, Mirrored<\/strong> has been reimagined as a new constellation incorporating a mirrored ceiling. The transformation reflects Devlin\u2019s ongoing interest in creating environments whose atmosphere and spatial relationships remain fluid rather than fixed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The work also exemplifies a characteristic tension within her practice: the ability to make a large-scale public installation feel simultaneously architectural and intimate, spectacular and contemplative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The exhibition\u2019s spectacular final room is also its conceptual heart. An Infinite Library<\/strong>, a new kinetic sculpture commissioned by the Design Museum, brings together more than 2,000 books that have informed Devlin\u2019s worldview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eight metres wide and triangular in form, the bookshelf rotates on a circular mirror, transforming a familiar architectural object into a moving, reflective structure. The books are arranged by colour, many of them well-thumbed volumes taken directly from Devlin\u2019s own studio shelves, including Chaos<\/strong> by James Gleick, The Spell of the Sensuous<\/strong> by David Abram, Beloved<\/strong> by Toni Morrison and Oryx and Crake<\/strong> by Margaret Atwood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These are not simply books chosen to populate an installation. Each has personal significance for Devlin and has helped shape the intellectual and imaginative landscape from which her work has emerged. The sculpture evokes Umberto Eco\u2019s description of a library as a \u201ccompass of the mind\u201d, while suggesting the ability of books to transport us into other worlds and into ways of seeing that are not our own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Visitors experience the library through projections and a soundscape featuring Devlin\u2019s voice reading selected passages aloud. Text, light, sound, movement and architecture converge in a work that encapsulates many of the recurring materials of her practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many of the books have been provided by Penguin Random House UK in support of the National Year of Reading. At the close of the exhibition, they will be donated to local schools and charities, extending the work\u2019s journey beyond the museum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n An Infinite Library<\/strong> is the fourth in Devlin\u2019s series of sculptural libraries, following Library of Light<\/strong> at Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan, Library of Us<\/strong> on Faena Beach in Miami and Library of the Four Winds<\/strong> at Castle Howard in Yorkshire. It is the first of the series to be displayed inside a museum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Design Museum exhibition also arrives at a particularly triumphant moment in Devlin\u2019s career. In September 2026, she brought her extraordinary vision to Homo Faber 2026: An Island of Light<\/strong> in Venice, creating one of the city\u2019s most striking cultural experiences of the year. At the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, she transformed the historic complex into an immersive celebration of craftsmanship, bringing together more than 500 artisans from over 70 countries and more than 700 objects across 15 installations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Devlin\u2019s achievement was not simply to create a spectacular setting for exceptional craft, but to put the makers themselves at its heart. Her own installations became unforgettable encounters: in A Full Moon Rising<\/strong>, vessels and moon jars appeared to rise from the waters of the former Gandini swimming pool, while A Great Turning<\/strong> transformed the Palladian Cloister through water, light and a vast kinetic mirror. Together, they gave craftsmanship an extraordinary stage, placing the skill, imagination and human hand behind each object at the centre of the experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/art50.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Es-Devlin-photographed-in-Es-Devlin_-Other-Worlds-at-the-Design-Museum_Photo-credit-David-Parry-for-the-Design-Museum-8-donusturuldugu-kaynak-jpg-scaled.webp\")
<\/a>Studio<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
A 50-Year Archive \u2014 Parts I and II<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>A 30-Year Desk<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>Come Home Again, Mirrored<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>An Infinite Library<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/a><\/a>At the Height of Her Practice<\/h3>\n\n\n\n