\\\\\ 'WE EXERCISE THE POWER' ///// -100 books banned in Ireland under the Censorship of Publications Act: 1930; - (100 watercolour paintings, 2011)

We Exercise the Power is a project I have been researching for the last six months through regular visits to the Irish Censorship Office to view the official Register of books that were banned in Ireland under the Censorship of Publications Act of 1930-. When a book was deemed unfit for Irish readers, due either to themes of general indecency, obscenities, religious views, the issue of abortion or for other such reasons, it would automatically be prohibited by the Board for twelve years. When the twelve years passed the Board could then reconsider the book and prohibit it again for a further twelve years. In this way some authors found their books being banned over and over again in Ireland by the Board. The censorship of authors and books was particularly severe in Ireland, a country greatly influenced by the power of the Catholic Church and the Board would not think twice about banning any author’s who dared point the finger at the Catholic Church. In 2010, we saw for the first time no new books banned in Ireland after the twelve-year ban was lifted on a number of books. The only real issue that still seems to cause controversy being that of abortion.

We Exercise the Power is comprised of 100 watercolour paintings of 100 books by 100 author's who have at one time or another been banned in Ireland throughout the last century. The project will be traveling to a number of libraries around the country over the coming months, each time showing a selection of works from the series.


Libraries 'We Exercise the Power' will be traveling to:

2011
* Aug 2nd – 25th // Mountmellick Library/Gallery, Co. Laois.
* Oct 1st – 22nd // Leixlip Library/Gallery, Co. Kildare.
* Nov 15th – 30th // Skibbereen Library, West Cork.
* Dec 1st - Jan 9th // Cork HQ, Co. Cork
2012
* Jan 10th – Feb 11th // Abbeyleix Library, Co. Laois.
* Feb 14th - Mar 17th // Rathmines Library, Dublin
* Mar 19th - April 7th // Pearse St. Library & Archive
* April 23rd - May 4th // Loughboy Library, Co. Kilkenny
* Nov 5th - Nov 16th // Tallaght Library, Dublin
* Dec 1st - Jan 31st // Cashel Library, Co. Tipperary
2013
* Jan 29th - // Old Bawn Community School Library, Tallaght
* Feb 12th - // Roscrea Library, Co. Tipperary
* Oct - Dec // 1014 cafe, Clontarf, Dublin *
*



- Loughboy Library, Co. Kilkenny // April 23rd - May 4th // 2012

- Pearse St. Library & Archive, Dublin // Mar 20th - April 7th // 2012



















- Rathmines Library, Dublin // Feb 14th - Mar 16th // 2012
























- Abbeyleix Library, Co. Laois // Jan 10th - Feb 11th // 2012





















- Mountmellick Library, Co. Laois // Aug 2nd - 26th // 2011











- Leixlip Library, Co. Kildare // Oct 1st - 22nd // 2011











\\\ WE EXERCISE THE POWER || 100 BANNED BOOKS IN IRELAND ///



80/100 - The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (first published in 1774)

79/100 - Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin (first published in 1953)

78/100 - A Severed Head by Iris Murdoch (first published in 1961)

77/100 - La Dolce Vita: Federico Fellini's Masterpiece by Federico Fellini (companion book to film, first published in 1961)

76/100 - A World Apart by Gustav Herling (first published in 1951)

75/100 - Handbook for Slaves by Victor Bruno (first published in ?)

74/100 - Lady Sings the Blues by Billie Holiday with William Dufty (first published in 1956)

73/100 - All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren (first published in 1946)

72/100 - Homer's Daughter by Robert Graves (first published in 1955)

71/100 - Story of the Eye by Georges Bataille (first published in 1928)

70/100 - The 120 Days of Sodom by Marquis De Sade (first published in 1905)

69/100 - The South by Yves Berger (first published in 1962)

68/100 - The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing (first published in 1962)

67/100 - Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Hunt Collins (first published in 1956)

66/100 - Two Weeks In Another Town by Irwin Shaw (first published in 1960)

65/100 - The Soil by Emile Zola (first published in 1887)

64/100 - I, the Jury by Mickey Spillane (first published in 1947)

63/100 - Native Son by Richard Wright (first published in 1940)

62/100 - Beautiful Losers by Leonard Cohen (first published in 1966)

61/100 - Passion Flower by Kathleen Norris (first published in 1930)

60/100 - The Passion of New Eve by Angela Carter (first published in 1977)

59/100 - Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift (first published in 1726)

58/100 - The Day of the Locust by Nathanael West (first published in 1939)

57/100 - The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow (first published in 1953)

56/100 - BUtterfield 8 by John O'Hara (first published in 1935)

55/100 - The Party Dress by Joseph Hergesheimer (first published in 1930)

54/100 - Goodbye Stranger by Douglas Heyes (first published in 1952)

53/100 - Last Exit to Brooklyn by Hubert Selby Jr (first published in 1964)

52/100 - In Love by Alfred Hayes (first published in 1953)

51/100 - Molloy by Samuel Beckett (first published in 1951)

50/100 - The Grass Harp by Truman Capote (first published in 1951)

49/100 - Tender is the Night by F.Scott Fitzgerald (first published in 1934)

48/100 - The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler (first published in 1939)

47/100 - Here We Go Around the Mulberry Bush by Hunter Davies (first published in1965)

46/100 - Soldiers' Pay by William Faulkner (first published in 1926)

45/100 - Reflections in a Golden Eye by Carson McCullers (first published in 1941)


44/100 - Gigi by Colette (first published in 1944)

43/100 - From Here To Eternity by James Jones (first published in 1951)

42/100 - Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis (first published in 1954)

41/100 - The Man With The Golden Arm by Nelson Algren (first published in 1949)

40/100 - The Land Of Spices by Kate O'Brien (first published in 1941)

39/100 - Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (first published in 1955)

38/100 - The Naked Lunch by William Burroughs (first published in 1959)

37/100 - The Dark by John McGahern (first published in 1965)


36/100 - Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert (first published in 1856)

35/100 - The Lord Of The Flies by William Golding (first published in 1954)

34/100 - The Well Of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall (first published in 1928)

33/100 - Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams (first published in 1955)

32/100 - The Country Girls by Edna O'Brien (first published in 1960)

31/100 - From Russia With Love by Ian Fleming (first published in 1957)

30/100 - The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway (first published in 1926)

29/100 - Voyage in the Dark by Jean Rhys (first published in 1934)

28/100 - The Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger (first published in 1951)

27/100 - On The Road by Jack Kerouac (first published in 1957)

26/100 - LoveHead by Jackie Collins (first published in 1974)

25/100 - Funeral Rites by Jean Genet (first published in 1947)

24/100 - The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand (first published in 1943)

23/100 - The Bachelors by Muriel Spark (first published in 1960)

22/100 -The City and the Pillar by Gore Vidal (first published in 1948)

21/100 - Borstal Boy by Brendan Behan (first published in 1958)

20/100 - Crash by J.G Ballard (first published in 1973)

19/100 - The Accomplises by George Simenon (first published in 1977)

18/100 - The Holy Sinner by Thomas Mann (first published in 1951)

17/100 - BOY by James Hanley (first published in 1931)

16/100 - Marriage & Morals by Bertrand Russell (first published in 1929)

15/100 - An American Dream by Norman Mailer (first published in 1965)

14/100 - Catch 22 by Joseph Heller (first published in 1961)

13/ 100 The Color Purple by Alice Walker (first published in 1982)

12/100 - God's Little Acre by Erskine Caldwell (first published in 1933)

11/100 - The Tailer and Ansty by Eric Cross (first published in 1942)

10/100 - Rabbit, Run by John Updike (first published in 1960)

9/100 - Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck (first published in 1937)

8/100 - Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence (first published in 1928)

7/100 - Tropic of Capricorn by Henry Miller (first published in 1938)

6/100 - A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (first published in 1962)

5/100 - Adventures In the Skin Trade by Dylan Thomas (first published in 1953)

4/100 - The Age of Reason by Jean-Paul Sartre (first published in 1945)

3/100 - Goodbye, Columbus by Philip Roth (first published in 1959)

2/100 - Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell (first published in 1949)

1/100 - Point Counter Point by Aldous Huxley (first published in 1928)