Banning and burning books was once a primary method of choice to stop the spread of powerful new ideas that would challenge our understanding of the world; and threaten systems of power.  However, since Gutenberg and even more so since the internet; those threatened by powerful new ideas have found that you can't destroy all of the books. Thus other means are necessary to suppress "dangerous" ideas. Most of the books titles painted on this work; have never been banned. But they have often been discarded by public libraries, or never been purchased. There are many means to suppress Forbidden Knowledge and to legislate The Crime of Reason.

Democracy and the civility of open society is fragile. This painting portrays the fragility of reason and civility through two figures: an unbalanced orange man on the left and the face of a woman on the right. The choice of the books is not arbitrary. The five books of the orange man form an ensemble of closed power. The fifty books and phrases of the woman's face form an ensemble of open reason. The seven yellow books at the bottom are a selection of my mother's books.

This painting is part of

the BLANK Series.