In spring 2024, the Hans Erni Museum will present an exhibition on a highly topical subject: "World knowledge. The encyclopedia from Diderot to Hans Erni to the present day". The project to compile all the knowledge known at the time in a multi-volume reference work with contributions from renowned authors and instructive illustrations was a milestone of the Enlightenment and ultimately the impetus for the revolutionary upheavals of the late 18th century. It can be regarded as the forerunner of the www and today's storage of enormous amounts of data.

Around the middle of the 20th century, Hans Erni worked on the mammoth project of a ten-volume encyclopaedia, the "Mac-Donald Illustrated Library" for Aldus Books, Ltd, London, and Doubleday Inc, New York. As the artist had repeatedly cited pleasure and utility as the aim of his art, he was delighted with this commission. Throughout his life, he strove to present complex issues in a visually appealing form. The Hans Erni Foundation preserves a large number of the fully elaborated and complex illustrations created for this publication. The Foundation also owns a copy of the encyclopaedia by Denis Diderot and Jean Baptiste le Rond d'Alembert, which was published between 1751 and 1780.

Reasons enough to stage an exhibition on the phenomenon of the encyclopaedia from the Age of Enlightenment to the present day and to explore the appeal and purpose of a comprehensive collection of knowledge. In the show, the encyclopaedia of the 18th century is juxtaposed with the one illustrated by Erni. The third part of the exhibition features contemporary works of art that deal with the idea of a comprehensive collection of knowledge.

Ken Aptekar, Ester Bättig, Anto Egloff, Hans Erni, Marcel Glanzmann, Anne Guttormsen Fraser, Rut Himmelsbach, Rosa Lachenmeier, Charles Moser, Marcel Scheible. Henrik Spohler, Peter Wüthrich, Anna Sabina Zürrer, Pidi Zumstein and Marc Véron.
A catalog and a varied program of events accompany the show.