White walls with an excerpt from a poem in black vinyl. The excerpt says:

An excerpt from the poem in English, which is installed in full around the perimeter of the Main Library Gallery.

Lauren Coghlan
b. USA
Un coup de dés (2025)
Vinyl

Around the perimeter of the gallery is the entire English translation of Stéphane Mallarmé’s “Un coup de dés jamais n’abolira le hasard” (A throw of the dice will never abolish chance). Made by University of Iowa Libraries creative coordinator Lauren Coghlan, this installation piece features over 185 feet of black vinyl letters along with red circles that indicate line breaks in the poem.

Read the compressed and punctuated poem in English, translated by A.S. Kline. 

Artist Lauren Coghlan, a white woman with blonde hair and wearing a blue striped sweater, stands on an orange ladder and applies black vinyl to a tall white wall.

Creative Coordinator Lauren Coghlan installing vinyl in the Main Library Gallery before the exhibit opened in January 2025.