The Gruffalo, The Snail and the Whale, The Highway Rat, You're A Hero Daley B – these are just a few of more than a hundred publications famously illustrated by Axel Scheffler. The Gruffalo became one of the best-selling children's books of all time.

For his studies, Axel Scheffler moved from Hamburg to Great Britain in the early 1980s and stayed there to this day. To keep in touch with family and friends, he started lively correspondence. Axel Scheffler designs the envelopes with his own drawings and illustrations. The result is an oeuvre of illustrated envelopes that he sent to artists, relatives, colleagues, authors and publishers. On the tiny canvases, he could be particularly playful and funny.

The drawings reflect private topics as well as events and news of the day. The stamps, carefully selected by Axel Scheffler, are essential elements in designing the envelopes. Queen Elizabeth II has recurring appearances. The collected envelopes also show traces caused by the postal transport: stamps, stains, creases, stickers are special additions that arise when such artworks are handed over to a public mailbox.

The exhibition „Von Monstern, Mäusen und Menschen“ (Of Monsters, Mice and Men) provides a chronological overview of Scheffler's illustrated correspondence with fifty different recipients. Axel Scheffler's most memorable figures are presented in a huge collage that invites visitors to find the characters on the envelopes.