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Cover of Book and handout Bristol wrapper
8.5″ x 6.25″ x .75″
2020-2021

Expositions are the timekeepers of progress is about the transformation of history into lore, fact into fiction, occupation into resettlement, and all of it the result of the shifting of the center of one town plaza. It is an examination of monument removal, seen through the eyes of Arcata, California, and its statue of William McKinley, removed in 2019. The book draws its narrative from conflicting stories and histories of the president, the statue, and the process of a community both coming together and falling apart over an effigy that arguably never belonged there. The statue was a talisman; a mountain; a meeting place. It functioned less as a symbol of white oppression of the native Wiyot, nor the imperialist tendencies of the president himself, but simply as a mascot. Yet, the robust conversations in the community, taken slowly and methodically, helped all sides to see each other, and led to a previously improbable act of neighboring Eureka, returning Wiyot land, stolen in 1860 after a brutal massacre.

– Colleen Mullins, San Francisco, CA

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