Jerry Hirsch, on his commute home from New York City, started bringing pop-up books to his children in the 1970s. The collection grew as he began to buy more books drawing the attention of people who gave additions. Eventually Jerry and Joyce, his wife, filled a room of their house with over 1,000 books. Friends, family, and local school groups enjoyed turning the pages of these books for many years. In 2020 when Jerry and Joyce started to downsize their home they wanted to find a place where people would appreciate and learn from the collection. The collection found its home in 2021 at the Fleet Library at RISD. The first copies of the books are housed in Special Collections and the second copies of books are located on the first floor of the library and can be checked out by RISD faculty, students, and staff.

Vojtěch Kubašta was a Czech artist and creator of pop-up books. The Hirsch's collection contains many of Kubašta's books including his retelling of classic fairy tales. The exhibit uses three of Kubašta's books, Three Little Pigs, Puss In Boots, and Snow White, along with other versions of these tales in the Hirsch's collection to tell the story in a limited number of page spreads. The number of page spreads was affected by the time period the book was published in as well as financial constraints on the illustrators and paper engineers by the publishers. Regardless of the limitations the stories pop off the page and into our imagination.