The Banned Book Pairs

The Banned Book Pairs are sculptures presenting, side by side, a book and a replica of what is recognizably the same book burned to a cinder. The placement of these in pairs offers the viewer not only a chance to see the monstrous and difficult before-and-after of book burning, but also a chance to engage with the idea that one of the two, in each pair, retains its content and its uses. The aim is to allow this to facilitate intellectual engagement and conversation, and furthermore to encourage the viewer to not waste the opportunity to read and engage with material that, though it has been banned and burned in the past, has escaped some of the nightmares of history and is still here to be read and be understood.