All language is vulnerable. The man who vandalized these books did a search on the word
“gay” in the Library catalog. Most of the books he defaced were about gay and lesbian
issues but he also slashed books by author John Gay and even a book about the Enola Gay,
the World War II plane that dropped the atomic bomb. This book, A Time to Live by Jim
Brogan, is a novel about gay men growing old. I struggled with what to do with the book
because the descriptions of sex were quite graphic and unappealing to me. It was like bad
pulp fiction. The word “pulp” made me think papier mâché. It was fun tearing the pages
and arranging the strips to make new words and sentences. At first, I screened only the sex
words, thinking that would keep the piece from being “offensive.” But, in the same way
that this Reversing Vandalism exhibition brings exposure to the very books someone
wanted to destroy, the screens actually drew more attention to the words. A friend said,
“But they are just words.” And I realized that my attempt to censor the language was as
offensive as the physical act of vandalism.
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