Hauntingly and tenaciously, out of the ashes of destruction the resilience of story-telling
usually prevails. With this collage I wanted to evoke a maelstrom suggestive of the
metaphysical result created from attempts at censorship by individuals or regimes
throughout history. I believe it is the manifestation of accessible informed thought on
human sexuality that the vandal sought to undermine in his individual way. Puny though
his gesture may seem compared to the Nazi book burnings, it illuminates the reality that
the desire to censor is alive and well today. The analogy to historical transgressions against
books seems fitting considering that the larger target was the holdings of first ever Public
Library [with a center] devoted to Queer Studies.
Summary of various historical elements in the collage
Magnus Hirschfeld 1868–1935
Hirschfeld was a pioneer of sexology and a founder of the early gay rights organization—
The Scientific Humanitarian Committee. He also published the first Journal for Sexology in
1908 and opened the Institute for Sexual Science in Berlin in 1919. It was Magnus
Hirschfeld who coined the term transvestite. Hirschfeld amassed a remarkable library of
data and writings which were the primary target of the Nazi book burning rally in Berlin’s
Opera Plaza in 1933. (Two large center photos in collage). The number of volumes
destroyed from the Institute’s Library exceeded 10,000. In his lifetime he published a dozen
major works, twenty minor works and countless articles and collaborations on various
topics on human sexuality. Much of his published work has survived and various pictoral
elements of this collage were appropriated from these volumes in tribute to the
perseverance of Hirschfeld’s vision. Today, Hirschfeld’s assessment of homosexuality is the
accepted norm in the mental health field, disputed by only a minority of scientists.
(Photo of Hirschfeld in upper right corner and pictoral elements from various Hirschfeld
books—courtesy of The Gerard Koskovich Collection)
http://members.aol.com/dalembert/lgbt_history/nazi_biblio.html
The Institute For Sexual Science 1919–1933
In its own way the Institute for Sexual Science became an early prototype of a Queer
Community Center. Headquarters to various political and sexual reform movements, the
Institute sought to provide a place of counsel and respite for transgender and intersex
people among others.
Included in the collage are two recently emerged photos provided courtesy of the
Magnus Hirschfeld Institute in Berlin, whose historians had the wisdom to query a resident
who lived directly across from the former site of the Institute. Miraculously the resident
had taken and preserved these amazing amateur photos of the day of the Nazi raid on
the Institute.
“…in the morning, about one hundred sport students from the German Student Union
(“Deutsche Studentenschaft”) arrived at the Institute on lorries amid brass music and
cordoned off the premises. After a trumpet call, ransacking and plundering the library and
entrucking the book stocks. The subsequent final demonstration in front of the Institute
ended with a threefold “Sieg Heil” for Reichskanzler Adolf Hitler and the song “Fellows,
come out”! (“Burschen, heraus”)
(Excerpt from the CD Rom by The Magnus Hirschfeld Institute—the contemporary historical
society devoted to study of Hirschfeld and related matters.) The CD Institute for Sexual
Science is available in English and German through
http://www.prinz-eisenherz.com/
City Lights Bookstore 3/08/03—photo by Daniel Nicoletta
“Dissent Is Not Un-American” banners hanging on City Lights Bookstore, were the store’s
succinct response to heightened public polarization surrounding dissent against the US
Invasion of Iraq and related issues. Amid these concerns there was also public consternation
at the passing of the US Patriot Act on October 26, 2001. Hastily squeaked through
Congress immediately after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in NY, the Patriot
Act vastly expanded the authority of law enforcement and intelligence agencies to monitor
private communication and information, especially with regard to the internet and other
rapidly evolving technologies. (Without judicial oversight such as the requirement to show
probable cause). Of no small co-incidence was the fact that the anti-war movement had
recently discovered the internet as a powerful tool for mobilization. That such an enduring
institution as City Lights would be at the forefront of responsiveness on such matters today,
echoes their victorious defense of free speech during the Beat Era.
For more info on City Lights bookstore’s history:
http://www.citylights.com/
William S. Burroughs—Self Portrait c. 1959
Ink on Paper, 118.50, Rare books and manuscripts,
Columbia University, New York; Allen Ginsberg Collection
(skull drawing superimposed into right bonfire image)
Included is a reference to Burroughs, not only because he was queer and one of the targets
of harassing anti-obscenity litigation during the height of the Beat Era due to his overt and
maverick engagement with homosexual topics, but also because the San Francisco Public
Library vandal’s cut up methodology, whether we like it or not, is a distant bastard cousin
to the Burroughs mythology and its celebration of lawlessness. If only the vandal had
explored the Burroughs cut up methodology of poetics perhaps he would have found both
a useful surrogate to actual vandalism as well as an effective cathartic tool worth thousands
of hours of free therapy. Today one can even find a few great cut up engines on the internet
for the latest in DIY (do it yourself) cut up poetics.
http://gary.leeming.googlepages.com/cutup
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