Bush mug shots.

When you can see similar pictures in a public library, can you really call something "inciteful and hateful"?

Seems to me that it's very mainstream and the ones howling mad are in the fringes.

 Quote:
'Mug shots' of Bush administration officials featured in New York library exhibit

3 days ago

NEW YORK - The New York Public Library is displaying a photo exhibit featuring images of Bush administration officials doctored to look like police mug shots.

The half-dozen pictures were created two artists, Nora Ligorano and Marshall Reese, as part of a privately financed exhibit called "Line Up" in the landmarked public space on Fifth Avenue.

Included in the mug shot gallery are Vice-President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, former Bush adviser Karl Rove, former attorney general Alberto Gonzales and former defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

The dates on each image match days when each official spoke about Iraq in ways the artists consider criminal, with sound clips of them speaking, along with a camera flash going off and a prison door closing.

Some have criticized the library for displaying political satire in an institution that receives public funds.

Matthew Walter, spokesman for the New York Republican State Committee, said: "It is simply inappropriate to have political attack in the form of egregious doctored photographs of the president and other high-ranking officials who have dedicated their lives to public service in a taxpayer-funded building frequented schoolchildren and the general public."

The library issued a statement saying the exhibit "has no political agenda."

The photographs are part of a larger show called "Multiple Interpretations: Contemporary Prints in Portfolio at the New York Public Library," which will be up through Jan. 27.

The library has a long tradition of collecting political satire and caricature, library spokesman Herb Shaer said Friday.

"It's the mission of the library to document what's happening in the culture, and this is an artist's response to what's happening to the world around them," he said.













This is one case where I applaud the fact that this library (partially) receives private funding.