Pyramid Atlantic Book Arts Fair, Montgomery College, November 2008

The foundation for this action is the idea of Intellectual Freedom.

The Floating Museum displayed books that have garnered notoriety for their having been challenged or banned due to their content. Books were collected from local libraries to create a singular collection that were then used in bookmobile fashion at at Pyramid Atlantic Art Center's Book Arts Fair at Montgomery College, MD. A self adhesive bookplate insert was developed as a response to the attempts to quash ideas by banning the books that carry them. These were distributed to the community and inserted into previously banned books from local libraries.

Books are keepers of ideas. They are democratic in the ways they share knowledge, passed down from generation to generation, or passed around among friends, or from library patron to patron. The democracy of books has been challenged when schools, governments, and activists have attempted to ban books. Despite burnings and library purging, books endure. In this exhibition are books which have been banned in the 21st century but are now immutably, democratically available in the public libraries.

Another challenge to the democracy of books is the use of library records to prole for national security. Until the Patriot Act became law, your library records were private, belonging to you as much as the books belonged to the public trust. The Patriot Act made library records available for government surveillance. The American Library Associations Office of Intellectual Freedom can help you find the status of records in your state.

The book plate designed by Floating Lab Collective artists, plays on the issues of ownership and democracy of ideas in literature. Despite challenges, books and the ideas they hold remain ours, to share, discuss, and even to disagree with. By stating that a book belongs to everyone, we are afrming a collectivity and democracy in which books have a very special place.

A list of banned books includes:

1. And Tango Makes Three, by Justin Richardson/Peter Parnell
    Justication: Anti-Ethnic, Sexism, Homosexuality, Anti-Family, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group

2. The Chocolate War, by Robert Cormier
    Justication: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Violence

3. Olives Ocean, by Kevin Henkes
    Justication: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language

4. The Golden Compass, by Philip Pullman
    Justication: Religious Viewpoint

5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain
    Justication: Racism

6. The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
     Justication: Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language,

7. TTYL, by Lauren Myracle
     Justication: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group

8. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, by Maya Angelou
     Justication: Sexually Explicit

9. Its Perfectly Normal, by Robie Harris
     Justication: Sex Education, Sexually Explicit

10. The Perks of Being A Wallower, by Stephen Chbosky
     Justication: Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group

Off the list this year, are two books by author Toni Morrison. The Bluest Eye and Beloved, both challenged for sexual content and offensive language.

For more information on book challenges and censorship, please visit the ALA Ofce of Intellectual Freedoms Banned Books Web site at www.ala.org/bbooks.