Nationaal Museum van de Speelkaart
Exhibition : 28 November 2025 — 27 September 2026
Do you never turn over an extra card during a game of solitaire? Or have you ever made the last Rubik’s cube block disappear? The urge to win runs deep, and sometimes a little trick turns into an amazing trick. What starts as innocent deception can grow into a masterful strategy.
According to cultural historian Johan Huizinga, every game is a magic circle: a temporary world with its own rules and agreements. But that circle is fragile. The winner’s instinct pushes players to the edge time and time again—and sometimes over it. Cheaters are not spoilsports, but creative deceivers. They preserve the magic of the game while secretly taking advantage of it. Rules are there to be bent. Stretched. Broken. After all, cheating is also playing.
The exhibition VALS! (cheating) highlights how inventive people are in their quest for an unfair advantage. For centuries, artists have used animals to hold up a mirror to human behavior. In the exhibition, you will see deer, squirrels, dogs, and monkeys playing cards, secretly passing cards to each other to manipulate the game.
You will also gain insight into the sophisticated techniques used in dice and slot machines. Discover the ingenious devices casinos employ to outsmart cheaters. Or learn about the nineteenth-century bonneteurs who roamed trains to swindle travelers out of their money in card games.
In this exhibition, cheating is not considered a moral transgression, but a reflection of human creativity and imagination.
And sometimes you have to admit: this isn’t fair, but it is ingenious!
The museum also challenges you to investigate for yourself. Follow the clues throughout the space and try to unmask the cheater. Will you betray him, or not?
‘VALS!’ takes you to the dark side of card games: a world of tension, deception, and brilliant tricks. The stories are enriched with works of art, intriguing objects, and surprising archive material.
The cards have been dealt: choose a side. Will you play fair… or cheat?
Nationaal Museum van de Speelkaart
Druivenstraat 18
2300 Turnhout
Belgium