Ardis was founded in Ann Arbor, Michigan, by Carl and Elenndea Proffer in 1971. The Proffers had two goals for their publishing house. The first was to publish in Russian the "lost library" of twentieth-century Russian literature that had been censored and removed from Soviet libraries, including works by Osip Mandelstam, Marina Tsvetaeva, and Vladimir Nabokov. The second was to bring translations of contemporary writers working in the Soviet Union to American scholars and the West.

The exhibit provides an insider's view of Ardis as a business and an up-close look at some of some of its most important publications.

The exhibit is on display during regular Special Collections Library hours.