Paradise exhibition focuses on public works for factory walls, hospitals and nurseries – long before Moominmania took hold

A white, hippo-like snout, matched in bulbosity by a well-padded paunch, no facial features bar a pair of inquisitive eyes: the simple rendering of the Finnish author Tove Jansson’s protagonist Moomintroll was key to the enduring success of her series of children’s books.

However, ahead of next year’s 80th anniversary of one of the most beloved set of literary characters ever created for children, Jansson’s home town, Helsinki, is shifting the spotlight away from those easy-to-draw spherical shapes to more complex marks made by the artist. Among them are intricate panoramas drawn in charcoal on tracing paper, oil-painted vignettes rendered on glass and monumental landscapes lavished on plaster walls.