Artist Types For Freedom To Read

For the last week Los Angeles-based performance artist Tim Youd has been living in the front window of The Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library. 

"This week I’m retyping Ray Bradbury's 'Fahrenheit 451,' which fits perfectly into the theme of banned books because 'Fahrenheit 451' is about the burning of books and censorship," explains Youd, "with the title being the temperature at which paper auto-ignites."

The manual typewriter is Tim Youd’s instrument.  He recreates novels by typing the entire work on a single piece of paper, using same make and model of typewriter the author used in a location that relates to the book. 

He’s returning to the Vonnegut library, a year after he typed "Breakfast of Champions" here.  The library invited him back to tackle "Fahrenheit 451" as part of Banned Books Week, an annual awareness campaign that celebrates the freedom to read. 

Youd is working on a 1940’s Royal atop Bradbury’s desk, on loan from IUPUI’s Center for Ray Bradbury Studies.  His literary prison is enclosed with stacks of books that have all been banned at one time. 

"These are books that sometimes you can’t get in if you’re in some school district in southern California or Missouri or wherever the case might be," says Youd.

He remarks that books can make easy targets.

"They’re symbols more than they are anything else," says Youd. "It's a shorthand way of taking a stand and saying 'this is what I'm for, I'm against dark magic, so we're banning Harry Potter.'" 

Youd is on a quest to recreate 100 books.  Usually the finished work is mounted and displayed as a diptych, but on Friday night he’ll give it the same treatment that many censors have and burn it.