Isabel Nolan, a Dublin-based artist, has created Ireland's presentation for the Venice Biennale, transforming the national pavilion into a secular chapel-like installation titled "Dreamshook". The work borrows heavily from Christian visual language, such as stained-glass-style arches and radiant tapestries, but redirects that aesthetic power towards celebrating secular figures including scientists and humanists, reflecting Nolan's belief that Christianity has long been skilled at "weaponising aesthetics" for its own ends.

Central to the installation is the story of Aldo Manuzio, a Venetian printer and humanist working around 1500, credited with innovations including italics, blank margins, the semicolon and an early precursor to the paperback book. One tapestry depicts Manuzio visited in a dream by an angel amid a swirl of winged books, symbolising his vision of making knowledge widely accessible rather than confined to the church and nobility; despite being a Christian, he was one of history's most prolific printers of classical Greek and Roman texts. The exhibition, rich in sculpture, textile and drawing, also includes benches for weary visitors, and coincides with a retrospective of Nolan's work, "Some Fundamental Forces", opening at Southwark Park.