“This book is a visual love letter to a natural history museum,” says Dona Jalufka, who, in unexpected and impressive photographic compositions, offers a glimpse “behind the scenes” of Austria’s most visited museum.
The result is an ode to nature and to the place that preserves it: the Natural History Museum in Vienna, whose collections are dedicated to scientific research as much as to the public. As a historical site with its own unique building and exhibition architecture, the museum engages in a richly contrasting dialogue with the objects on display.
“The prerequisite for knowledge is curiosity.” Jacques-Yves Cousteau
The Natural History Museum Vienna showcases many scientific fields, from mineralogy, geology, and paleontology to botany, zoology, anthropology, and human prehistory. However, the public sees only a fraction of the collections. A vivid analogy is that of an iceberg, of which only a small portion is visible above the waterline. Only a few percent of the approximately 30 million objects in the collection are on display, and only one-fifth of the space is dedicated to public exhibition halls. Behind the scenes of such a large institution are areas that the public rarely knows about: vast storage rooms (four basement levels), preparation rooms, laboratories, offices, and archives.
"Research creates new knowledge." Neil Armstrong
With her background in the natural sciences, the work of the American artist Dona Jalufka photographically explores this Gesamtkunstwerk (total work of art), the diversity of nature, and its history for the public. The photographs presented in the book show public areas as well as the larger, inaccessible section. A glimpse "behind the scenes" reveals unexpected and impressive compositions to the viewer.
"Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the passing on of the flame." This quote—attributed to Sir Thomas More and Gustav Mahler, among others—can also be understood in relation to preservation in art and culture. In this sense, months of photographing in the heart of a museum gave me insight into the tradition of conservation. Dona Jalufka
Dona Jalufka was born in Houston, Texas, USA, where she studied fine arts, photography, and graphic design and worked as a graphic designer for NASA and other space research institutions. In 1990, she moved to Vienna, Austria, where she continued her studies at the University of Applied Arts and worked as a graphic designer at the University of Vienna. Jalufka's work focuses on painting, mixed media, and photography. With a background in the natural sciences, she has explored scientific topics through the lens of her art. Her work has been exhibited in galleries and museums in the United States, Austria, Germany, and Italy.
BOOK LAUNCH - April 25, 2026, 2:00 p.m. Austrian Film Museum, Augustinerstraße 1, 1010 Vienna
Preserved - A Natural History . Dona Jalufka . 29.7 × 21 cm . 184 pages, 92 illustrations German, English. Hardcover. ISBN 978-3-903462-10-6. EUR 49.90. March 2026