Permission to Read examines the current wave of banning and censoring books in the United States. I created this series in response to the growing number of challenges against books in recent years and my concern that individuals or institutions can decide what information others are allowed to access. Banning books is not only about restricting stories, but about erasing the social and cultural context that gives them meaning. I aim to draw attention to how these acts shape the information we encounter and the perspectives we are able to engage with.

For Permission to Read, I redesigned the covers of several frequently challenged or banned books using Adobe Illustrator. Each cover visually demonstrates censorship by redacting nearly all of the author biography and book synopsis, leaving visible only words that appear on the list of banned terms circulated to federal legislators during the Trump administration. By isolating these words, the designs show how censorship removes context and distorts meaning, reducing narratives to fragmented and misleading remnants. The illustrations use a silhouette style inspired by a version of The Handmaid’s Tale, keeping the imagery ambiguous and allowing the primary focus to remain on the typography and redacted text.

By presenting these altered covers, I hope to prompt viewers to reconsider how book bans shape access to literature and public understanding. When context is removed, stories become incomplete, and conversations surrounding culture, identity, and history are limited. Permission to Read invites viewers to reflect on how censorship influences the way we encounter information and to question who ultimately decides what knowledge is available in our society.