Ruling Out Art: Media Art Meets Law in Ontario's Censor Wars (Law and Society) - Hardcover

Sirove, Taryn

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 077483708X ISBN 13: 9780774837088

Publisher: UBC Press, 2019

Synopsis

In the 1980s, the Ontario Board of Censors began to subject media artists' work to the same cuts, bans, and warning labels as commercial film. This innovative exploration of how art and law intersected in the ensuing censor wars turns a spotlight on the powerful role that artists can play in the administration of culture. When artists and their anticensorship allies mounted grassroots protests and entered courts of law, they impacted how the province interpreted freedom of expression. The language of the law in turn shaped the way artists conceived of their own practices.

About this title

About the Author

Taryn Sirove is an art historian and independent curator based in Toronto.

Review

For artists and institutions directly involved in the censorship struggles of the 1980s, Taryn Sirove’s Ruling Out Art is a well-researched study which demonstrates that their efforts were not completely in vain. This book is an excellent addition to the media and censorship historiography in Canada and will introduce a new generation to the culture wars around censorship and gay rights that were central to artists’ concerns of the late 1970s through to the 1990s – many of which persist today. (Bruce Barber, professor of media arts, art history, and contemporary culture, NSCAD University)

Ruling Out Art is an engaging history of arts censorship in Ontario during the 1980s and early 1990s. Taryn Sirove clearly understands the relationship between those who engage in civil disobedience work, protests, and public awareness campaigns, and those who undertake strategic litigation and law reform. To her credit, she does not privilege or denigrate one type of work over the other. (Karen Busby, professor, Faculty of Law, University of Manitoba)

Edition details

• Publisher: UBC Press
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 077483708X
• ISBN 13: 9780774837088
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 256