Queers vs. the Code was a 5'x8' wall installation I produced for an exhibit. The piece showcases queer movie posters and their evolution as society has become more accepting of the LGBTQIA community. The code to which the piece refers was Hollywood's Production Code, which censored artistic freedom and policed morality in films. The installation, along with a book that served as a companion piece, details instances of coded design.
Design and Restriction delves deeper into the Production Code. In the 1930s -- the height of the code -- homosexuality in films, identified by Hollywood's bigwigs as "sex perversion," was outlawed. Work by filmmakers who challenged heteronormativity didn't start hitting screens again until the 1960s. In addition to relaying a clearer picture of the decades in which these films were made, through the book, I sought to explain how coded imagery used to portray taboo matter produced interesting design.