Tabook by Debbie Ali

An exploration around taboo topics contained in the pages of handmade books.

On May 6, 1933, the Nazi’s conducted book burnings across Germany. They broke into places that housed precious knowledge and were public resources. One such place was the Institute of Sexology, a library and clinic for women, queer, and transgender patients. In their rampage, the Nazi’s publicly destroyed over 20,000 books about identity, sexuality, queer thought, and other topics that they considered to be taboo. To this day, many of these topics remain hyper stigmatized and inspire books to be banned. Why? Presented here are a series of handmade books that explore some of these taboo themes and questions why these themes are so powerful. Often, the scarlet letter that gets applied to specific banned books, targets minorities in society or those who are deemed different. This condition limits our perception and our understanding of society and ALL individuals who live in it. We hope to bring many of these issues to light, as well as offer those who visit to take both liminal and physical pieces of information away to educate, accept and advocate