Curiouser And Curiouser

THE ALICE IN WONDERLAND books by Lewis Carroll have never been just for kids. Philosophers have published reams about the symbolism of Alice's journey and the characters, mathematicians have pored over its strange puzzles and equations, and the literary-inclined have parsed his eccentric poetry and made-up words. Now bibliophiles and cinephiles have more material to wrap their heads around - the history of Alice as presented in popular culture from 1865 to the present.

The new exhibition Wonderland at the ArtScience Museum in Marina Bay Sands offers a historically rich look at Alice through the decades, from its ubiquitous illustrations by John Tenniel, to the recent blockbuster live action Disney films starring Mia Wasikowska and Johnny Depp. Between them, there are over 70 film and TV adaptations, and hundreds of print versions in 176 languages.

They've allowed the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) to put together a rich tapestry of artworks, films, books, props, posters, costumes, music, puppetry and other paraphernalia. The exhibition is so thorough that there are even clips from The Matrix (1999) where Morpheus offers Neo the red pill so he can see "how deep the rabbit hole goes", and an episode from The Simpsons where Lisa falls through the rabbit hole.