A note from Christina Wilson

An Installation Celebrating Banned Books
By Phyllis L. Evans

Wednesday, October 8, 2008
3:00pm - 4:30pm
STC Pecan Campus Library
3201 W. Pecan Blvd.
McAllen, TX

This installation is a celebration of intellectual freedom and a reminder to library patrons of their constitutionally protected freedom to read what they please.

Embedded in the stacks throughout the library are a number of books that have been sealed shut and rendered completely inaccessible with encaustic, which is a mixture of beeswax and resin. Through a small hole drilled in each cover, an authoritative eye peers out from the frontispiece, seeing all who try to gain access to its forbidden pages.

Each of the books used in this installation has a history of being banned, challenged, or censored for social, political, moral, or religious reasons. A great many cases have involved the removal of books from school and public libraries, as well as from classroom required reading lists. There are also books that have been banned by state authorities, some having been subjected to public book burning events. Inside the front cover of each book is a card that gives an account of why and where the book was banned, challenged, or censored, and by whom.

Visitors to the library are invited to search the stacks for the banned books, which can be located by their Library of Congress catalogue card numbers. Visitors will find these books “SEALED FOR YOUR OWN PROTECTION” by an unnamed authority that keeps a constant surveillance over all intellectual activities, and deems the contents of the book dangerous to the individual or to society at large.

The true danger, however, lies in the inaccessibility of the information held within. As Americans, we are granted intellectual liberties that people in many other societies do not enjoy. Yet in our post 9/11 society, we find ourselves faced with many of the same restrictions on intellectual liberty that 20th century authors like George Orwell, Ray Bradbury, and Aldous Huxley predicted in their dystopian fictions. It is of utmost importance that we do all we can to stop any threats that might take these liberties away. I hope this installation will serve as a reminder of the preciousness of our constitutionally granted rights to unrestricted intellectual freedom.

On display at the Pecan Campus Library through October 31.