In support of the fundamental American right to freedom of speech I created an artwork
for the REVERSING VANDALISM project.
While doing research at Leonard Library (of San Francisco State University), I have seen
strident anti-Jewish messages such as “The Holocaust is a lie!” stamped upon the title-page
of many works in the Jewish history and literature bookstacks. Naturally at SFSU and at
other institutions, books about Jews are not the only category which has prompted this
kind of abuse- which is virtually a one-sided debate in which the book, like a person who
has been gagged, cannot defend itself. To deface a book is easy for the perpetrator, who
exploits the customary quiet and decorum of the library to spread hate.
Necessarily, a library, potentially one of the major fronts in the war against intolerance,
includes a multitude of texts, embodying a range of academic disciplines, representations
of popular culture, theories, writing styles, creative decisions and scholarly approaches.
All texts are not sacred; however, I believe that each author’s right to freedom of expression
is sacred. A book willfully damaged has had its tongue cut out. Every thinking person must
abhor such mutilation, which calls to mind the worst excesses of colonial rule, wartime
atrocities and the horrors of slavery.
For the edification and enrichment of all of us, free speach must be encouraged. In
particular, free expression from writers who belong to marginalized groups be encouraged.
Historically, gay people, women and ethnic minorities have been victims of discrimination,
both politically and culturally. The wanton destruction of books about these groups, and
the thwarting of publication of works authored by members of these groups, threaten the
human right to freedom of speech. In order to support, even if only to a small degree,
the right to such freedom, I desire to participate in the Reversing Vandalism project.
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