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curated by Rachel Gugelberger

MELISSA DUBBIN & AARON S. DAVIDSON


Reading Room for Kids, 2006/2011 (installation view)
All 39 books from the CIA’s 2006 Intelligence Book List for K-5th and 6-12th graders, wood and paper butterflies, metal pins, glue, wallpaper, furniture, carpet
Dimensions variable
Courtesy of the artists
Produced while in residence with the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council
Photograph by Mia O.


Reading Room for Kids, 2006/2011 (detail)
All 39 books from the CIA’s 2006 Intelligence Book List for K-5th and 6-12th graders, wood and paper butterflies, metal pins, glue, wallpaper, furniture, carpet
Dimensions variable
Courtesy of the artists
Produced while in residence with the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council
Photograph by Mia O.


Reading Room for Kids, 2006/2011 (detail)
All 39 books from the CIA’s 2006 Intelligence Book List for K-5th and 6-12th graders, wood and paper butterflies, metal pins, glue, wallpaper, furniture, carpet
Dimensions variable
Courtesy of the artists
Produced while in residence with the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council
Photograph by Mia O.


In Reading Room for Kids, Dubbin and Davidson have transformed data into form, creating a reading room after the CIA’s recommended reading list for grades K-5 and 6-12. The wallpaper and butterflies are based on illustrations from “My Adventures as a Spy,” a 1915 book by Lord Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of the Boy Scouts and a British spy. Prior to his service in South Africa, he spied around military forts disguised as a butterfly enthusiast, sketching the plans and armaments of each fort, their size, type, and location of its guns concealed within the butterfly’s wings and body. Veins on the ivy leaf show the location of a fort, as seen looking west (point of the leaf indicates north). The butterfly contains the outline of a fortress, and marks on the lines of the wings note the caliber and position of guns.