Artist Talk: The Story Behind the Tower of Banned Books

A Discussion with Kelly McCray

Kelly McCray with The Tower of Banned Books.

Register now for this free, exciting talk at Oakville Public Library

Wednesday, April 9, 2025 | 6 – 7pm
Oakville Public Library
Register and learn more here

Join artist Kelly McCray for a compelling talk on the creation and evolution of The Tower of Banned Books, now on display at Oakville Public Library’s Central Branch.

The Tower of Banned Books is an art installation built from hundreds of challenged and banned books, symbolizing the ongoing fight for intellectual freedom.

McCray will share the journey of the tower – from its origins as the Surveillance Tower, which referenced our everyday keyboards and the data they collect, to its transformation into a striking statement on book bans and censorship in libraries, schools, and bookstores.

Images (left to right): The Tower of Banned Books, photo by Ian MacLeod. A closer look inside The Tower of Banned Books.

Kelly McCray’s Statement:

The Tower of Banned Books installation depicts the weight of censorship through the ages while amplifying the on-going saga of books facing untold challenges in libraries, schools and bookstores, including works by contemporary children’s and young adult authors. The sculptural installation is comprised of 500 – 600 used books, opposing convex mirrors and an armature. The top of the tower is crowned with a chaotic assemblage of open books that are heavily redacted with red reflective tape. The banned book tower was first introduced to the public in the 2023 Artist Project at the Better Living Centre/CNE grounds. It was then installed at the Toronto Reference Library towards the end of 2023.

The Tower of Banned Books was modified from the original Surveillance Tower that was exhibited at the Indexing Resistance group show featured at the Toronto-based Plumb Gallery in 2022. The Surveillance Tower was titled as such due to the exterior surface of rows of unbound fore-edges of books that referenced our innocuous keyboards; the same keyboards compiling our personal data collected and sold through our social media sites. The floor and ceiling convex mirrors were added to the inner column of the tower, weaving the reflected banned books to infinity. In this talk, I will trace the journey of the book tower from its early inception to its current banned book tower theme and beyond.

Artist Kelly McCray. Photo by Vandana Taxali.

About Oakville Public Library

Oakville Public Library (OPL) strives to fulfill our mission of cultivating discovery and creativity in every phase of life. Our vision is to inspire Oakville and bring together people, information and ideas to enrich lives and build healthy communities. OPL is the destination in Oakville to learn, create, be and work.

Oakville Public Library
120 Navy Street
Oakville, ON L6J 2Z4
oplreference@oakville.ca
(905) 815-2042
opl.ca

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Image Descriptions:
1. The first image shows The Tower of Banned Books. On the left are various blue-coloured informational posters with white text. In the background are bookshelves and windows. A portrait of artist Kelly McCray is overlayed in the top, left corner.
2. The second image shows two images side by side. The left image shows The Tower of Banned Books. In the background are bookshelves. The right image shows the inside of The Tower of Banned Books.
3. The third image shows artist Kelly McCray smiling and wearing a black T-shirt, a yellow hat and a white name tag. In the background is a colourful painting with purple, blue, pink, red and yellow colours.