Phase 1
The Big Idea
Storytelling through visual images is a means of communicating personal experience; however, others can see certain identities as a threat, and as such, the banning of books surrounding topics such as race, gender, nationality, and identity has always been an issue worldwide.
Exhibition Themes
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Introducing the overall exhibition by starting with the discourse around hysteria around the banning of books and introducing our specific focus of banned graphic novels. Giving the viewer a basis for the discussion that will come further along by presenting them with a map of where books were banned, a provoking initial quote, and short interviews with people affected.
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Alongside early editions of Maus by Art Spiegelman are items from Holocaust survivors. This section contains drawings that may have inspired the book’s artwork, photographs of survivors, and books banned by the Nazis to create an accurate historical context. Low lighting and intense imagery evoke the importance of Maus’s emotional impact on audiences.
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Focuses on Persepolis by author Marjane Satrapi published in 2000. Objects such as original book copies, the 2007 Persepolis film, street art, fashion, propaganda, and visual media are included to convey the general’s perception of the Iranian Revolution. Ties to religion, sexual content, and violence in the novel are brought to attention in relation to the banning of books.
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Connects the content from the previous themes into the wide number of books being challenged today. This section consists of popular graphic novels such as Harry Potter, Fun Home, Class Act, Gender Queer, and Hearstopper among others for the viewers to read. Cartoons and photos of protests against book bans fill the space to convey protecting the freedom of speech of marginalized and oppressed communities.
Object List
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Object Number 001
Maus: A Survivors Tale, Two Book Boxset Vintage, 1992
Art Spiegelman, Book, 6” x 9”x 4”
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Object Number 002
Signed Copy of Persepolis - 1st Edition, 2003
Marjane Satrapi, Hardcover Book, 6” x 1.25” x 9”
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Object number 079
Commission Artist to Create Cat Sculpture for Maus, Unfinished
Tengyun Carving, Stainless Steel, Unknown
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Object number 059
Greg Locke Tennessee Book Burning, 2022
Tyler Salinas, Photograph, 20” x 15”
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Object Number 016
Nazi Book Burning, 1933
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Photograph, 20” x 15” x .1”
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Object number 071
Statue of Marjane Satrapi as a Child in the Comic, 2024
John Brown, Clay and Plastic, 68” x 18” x 16”
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Object number 048
Image of Mahsa Amini, 09/2022
Ernesto Yerena Montejano, Digital Drawing, 36” x 24”
Exhibition Concepts
The first concept is chronological order. It starts with a short introduction and then leads into a space to give an in-depth look at Maus. Finally, it carries into a larger space where Persepolis is located as a segway into the larger call to action.
Another concept created a cycle-like path that formed a non-linear experience between sections. The Introduction section informs the visitor so they can get a sense of the topics Maus and Persepolis are connected by, but after that, they can continue on to Maus or Persepolis in no particular order. Either way, they will end up in the Call to Action section after experiencing the stories of Maus and Persepolis.
The final concept is in a tighter chronological order. It starts with a short introduction leading into a space, giving an in-depth look of Maus. Then it carries into a larger space where Persepolis is located, acting as a segway into the larger call to action.
