A striking, life-sized waxwork of Virginia Woolf has found a new permanent home at the University of Sussex, arriving fittingly on Dalloway Day (18 June), during the centenary year of her iconic novel Mrs Dalloway.
The University is a natural home for Woolf’s likeness. Sussex holds the Monks House Papers, an extensive archive of Woolf’s letters, manuscripts, and press cuttings named after the Woolf’s house in nearby Rddmell.
Originally sculpted in 2015 by artist Eleanor Crook, “Wax Virginia” was first unveiled at King’s College London. She now takes centre stage in an exhibition, Pressing Matters: Printing with Virginia Woolf, on display at the Library Exchange from June through 29 September 2025.
The exhibition presents a vibrant mix of contemporary works inspired by Woolf’s legacy as both writer and publisher. Highlights include embroidered insults, a large-scale hand-printed poetry installation responding to Nancy Cunard’s Parallax (published by Woolf in 1925), an artist’s book, and visual interpretations of Orlando.
“Virginia Woolf was famously critical of universities as bastions of male privilege,” said Dr Helen Tyson, Associate Professor at Sussex. “But in her 1938 essay Three Guineas, she imagined a new kind of ‘experimental college’ where ‘society was free’ and all kinds of minds could co-operate. It feels especially meaningful to welcome her likeness here, alongside her archive, at a university born of a similar postwar vision.”
Students, staff, and visitors are warmly invited to explore the exhibition and reflect on Woolf’s enduring influence on literature, feminism, and the creative arts.