About the work

The 2024 Summer Project in Budapest delved deeply into the provocative theme of banned books in contemporary American culture, exploring the paradox of visibility and suppression. Book banning in the United States, notably intensified in the 2020s, reveals tensions between cultural prominence and institutional censorship, spotlighting titles simultaneously renowned and rejected.

Our project involved a meticulous analysis of comprehensive databases documenting banned literature across American libraries, resulting in the identification of the ten most frequently banned books of the current decade. For each selected book, we crafted custom paint rollers artistically embedding symbolic elements reflective of the authors' identities, narrative motifs, and the striking frequency of library bans.

Through this innovative artistic medium, we grappled with the paradoxical challenge: How does one visually manifest something both widely acknowledged and systematically concealed? Indeed, banned books typically stand as literary landmarks, celebrated for their cultural significance, yet remain contested and suppressed within public institutions.

This artistic endeavor evolved into an exploration of camouflage, investigating strategies to embed and veil narratives simultaneously—exposing censorship by creatively hiding the forbidden openly, thus embodying the complexity and contradictions inherent to banned literature.

The ten books symbolically transformed through our art rollers include:

1. Maia Kobabe, Gender Queer: A Memoir – 41 bans

2. George M. Johnson, All Boys Aren't Blue – 29 bans

3. Ashley Hope Perez, Out of Darkness – 24 bans

4. Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye – 22 bans

5. Jonathan Evison, Lawn Boy – 17 bans

6. Angie Thomas, The Hate U Give – 17 bans

7. Sherman Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian – 16 bans

8. Jesse Andrews, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl – 14 bans

9. Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner – 12 bans

10. Ellen Hopkins, Crank (Crank Series) – 12 bans