The Morgan Library and Museum has opened Graphic Devotions, an exhibition of late medieval European blockbooks, some of the earliest printed books in the West. The show opened on 6 November and looks at a moment when printing was new and images were made by pressing carved wooden blocks onto paper.

Blockbooks were produced in Europe in the fifteenth century, before movable type had fully taken hold, and they combined printed images with short passages of text. Many were devotional in purpose, made to be held, read and prayed over, and their makers worked at the boundary between manuscript and print.

The Morgan's exhibition gathers examples of these rare survivals, showing how early printers learned to tell stories in pictures. The books are small and intimate, but they mark a turning point in how knowledge and faith were shared, bringing images that had once been the preserve of the wealthy within reach of a wider audience.

For the Morgan, whose collections hold some of the finest early printed books in the world, the show is a chance to display material that rarely leaves the shelves. It offers visitors a close look at objects that are both works of art and witnesses to a revolution in communication. The Morgan's collections include some of the finest medieval manuscripts and early printed books in the world, and the exhibition draws on that strength. Blockbooks are rarely displayed because they are fragile and light-sensitive, so the show is a rare chance to see them outside the reading room.