Roll over, Tracey Emin - gay students past and present made their beds into a personal and political statement.

The Queer About Campus exhibition in a mocked-up bedroom at Sussex University told the story of 40 years of gay student life in Brighton.

The room featured a bed, desk and clothes strewn over the floor in archetypal student fashion, along with gay rights banners and posters on a noticeboard.

Instead of study notes, exercise books were filled with students' reminiscences about coming out on campus.

A bedside telephone allowed visitors to listen in on their recollections.

The exhibition aimed to lift the lid on the various protests and passions experienced by gay students at Brighton and Sussex universities since the Swinging Sixties.

While designed to recreate typical student living arrangements, the bedroom also echoed controversial artist Emin's famous 1999 exhibit, My Bed.

The Turner Prize-nominated creation featured an unmade bed surrounded by dirty underwear, vodka bottles and even a used condom.

But Benedict Brook, of the Queer About Campus project, said: "I don't think our bedroom is quite as messy as Tracey Emin's."

It also featured more traditional exhibition features, such as wall-mounted descriptions of key aspects of gay student life and history.

There were contemporary newspaper reports of the uproar caused when Sussex University launched an MA in sexual dissidence in the early-Eighties.

There were also newsletters and banners dating back to the Sixties testifying to Brighton students' pioneering efforts to promote gay rights.

Mr Brook said: "In a liberal city such as Brighton we wanted to illuminate that students have had a lot to do with its tolerant attitude.

"However, we wanted to display all of these memories and memorabilia in a fun way that was engaging to the audience."

Mr Brook, who studied at Sussex between 1997 and 2000, was co-chairman of the university's Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Group (LGBT), which suggested the project.

He hoped the exhibition would strike a chord with many returning graduates, covering experiences such as gay discos, furtive halls of residence bed-hopping and fending off homophobia from other students.

Contributors told how couples afraid of coming out of the metaphorical closet used to say that it was because the rooms were so cold that they had to cuddle together in bed.

Another anecdote revealed how punk legends The Clash were forced to go hungry when performing at Sussex University in the late-Seventies.

Mr Brook said: "There was a vegetarian cafe called The Pulse, run by a group of socialist, feminist lesbians, which was renowned for serving the best food on campus."

A former member of cafe staff remembered: "The Clash came to play at the university.

"We were mopping the floor at 7pm and these guys walked in and wanted us to fry eggs.

"We were outraged - these men expecting us to jump and start cooking. It didn't matter it was a famous pop group. They went away hungry."

The exhibition was produced by Sussex University's LGBT group and the Brighton Ourstory Project.

It was on display in the Debating Chamber in Falmer House as part of the university's Diversity Week.