Why is an object an artwork or a person deemed exotic? How does one's gaze get directed onto
things or people seemingly belonging to other regions or cultures? These questions are examined
here in relation to a specific context: the Enlightenment era from the Swiss perspective. This
publication brings together research by academics and museum specialists for the first time in
order to rethink this time period and geography. It contains essays and shorter texts centered
on pictures objects books and natural specimens from Swiss museum collections. Exotic in
this context refers to things that come from elsewhere and that can be used and improved for
the benefit of European powers. The term invites us to reconsider both the long eighteenth
century and the international history of Switzerland.
