Dorian Katz: Vice is Nice

Limited Edition Print Launch & Banned Book Show-n-Tell
Thu, Dec 5, 6–8PM

Presented by Black & White Projects
at Pacific Felt Factory Arts Complex
2830 20th St, San Francisco
Enter at gate on 20th between Bryant & York

Black & White Projects is pleased to present the release of Dorian Katz’s limited edition print: Vice is Nice, the first of a series of collaborative artist multiples published by the gallery for our 2024–2025 season.

Vice is Nice is a two-sided vinyl adhesive print referencing the seal of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, founded in 1873 by American anti-vice activist and US Postal Inspector Anthony Comstock. Comstock’s group, which was chartered by the New York state legislature, granted its agents the powers of search, seizure, and arrest, and awarded the society half of all fines levied in resulting cases ^[1], further intertwining Christian morality with laws that accumulate wealth for those in power through criminalization of, and extraction from, vulnerable communities. Katz flips the criminalizing seal with the celebratory declaration “Vice is Nice,” as Poppers the Pony escapes the grasp of the body-armored swine.

Concurrent with Vice is Nice is Poppers’s Human Heroes—a digital exhibition curated by our Curatorial Apprentice, Jane Sheehan—and a set of new limited edition prints from the series.

A launch event, artist talk, and open roundtable discussion about censorship with guests from Authors Against Book Bans, Books Not Bans, and ABO Comix is hosted on Thursday, December 5th, 2024, at 6pm, presented by Black & White Projects at Pacific Felt Factory in San Francisco’s Mission District.

For the launch event and banned book show-n-tell, Dorian requests “Please bring a favorite book that’s either been banned or contains themes common with the too damn many books banned in the USA right now. We’ll have tea, hot toddies, and snacks. Let’s hang out. Authors, we welcome bringing your books or info on what’s coming.”

An open edition of stickers with Katz’s seal will be distributed to the public to flag people, places and things that joyously defy the Comstock Act.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Society_for_the_Suppression_of_Vice 

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