Bush Administration 'mugshot' exhibit angers right wingers Adam Doster

Published: Saturday December 8, 2007



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Print This Email This Tucked deep into a corner on the third floor of the New York Public Library sits an art exhibition. While few visitors ever pass the unassuming display, right wing bloggers are taking it upon themselves to get it banned. The project? A series of six black and white prints in the form of mugshots, each containing the faces key Bush administration figures in the first few years of his presidency. The various "suspects in Line Up, as the exhibition is called, carry placards bearing a date. The Guardian reports that Nora Ligorano and Marshall Reese, who created the piece, chose the dates to refer to key speeches in which they believe the politicians incriminated themselves in front of the American people. An audio tape runs in tandem with the prints and plays the speeches as the prints come up in a slide show. President Bush scowls at the camera. Donald Rumsfeld and his assistant Richard Perle stare into the distance. Dick Cheney points a finger directly at the audience while a clip of his January 2001 speech insisting that there is not a "single shred of evidence" that he used government contracts to favor his old firm, Halliburton, plays in the background. While small in scope, word of the exhibition's political nature quickly spread throughout the blogosphere. According to The Guardian, Conservative commentators have decried the fact that a public institution had showcased the prints. "What is disgusting about these doctored photos is the place of prominence the library has given them," one blogger wrote. "I am shocked and angry that a public library would stoop to this level." Tammy Bruce, a rightwing radio talkshow host, said: "At first I wondered who put al-Qaida in charge of the New York public library, but then of course remembered the American left is doing their bidding for them." A library spokeswoman said that the reaction had taken the prints out of context. They were one part of a larger exhibition of 23 different printmakers. The library was making no political statement, she said, pointing out that "printmaking has been a popular medium for artists' commentary on current events of their day, among them Hogarth, Goya, Gillray and Daumier." The artists have stayed mum on the current controversy, allowing the prints to speak for themselves. Read the whole story HERE.



