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Art Art & Politics

Ruling Out Art

Media Art Meets Law in Ontario’s Censor Wars

by (author) Taryn Sirove

Publisher
UBC Press
Initial publish date
May 2019
Category
Art & Politics, Censorship, Canadian
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9780774837118
    Publish Date
    May 2019
    List Price
    $125.00
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780774837088
    Publish Date
    May 2019
    List Price
    $89.95
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780774837095
    Publish Date
    Nov 2019
    List Price
    $32.95

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Description

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. Ruling Out Art reveals what happens when art and law intersect, when artists, arts exhibitors, and their anti-censorship allies enter courts of law as appellants, defendants, or expert witnesses.

 

The administration of culture during Ontario’s censor wars was not a simple top-down exercise. Members of arts communities mounted grassroots protests and engaged the province in court cases that ultimately influenced how the province interpreted freedom of expression, a fundamental and far-reaching legal right. The language of the law in turn shaped the way artists conceived of their own practices.

 

By exploring how art practices and provincial legislation intertwined during Ontario’s censor wars, this innovative book documents an important moment in the history of contemporary art and cultural activism in Canada, one that helped artists secure their constitutional rights under the law.

About the author

Contributor Notes

Taryn Sirove is an art historian and independent curator based in Toronto. Her research focuses on contemporary art in Canada, particularly new media work and policy frameworks for the regulation of media art.