This project started during the 1988 Presidential campaign, when George H.W. Bush was running against Michael Dukakis, and although I was still in grad school, I felt compelled to do something directly to combat the rise of negative campaigning, spawned by Lee Atwater, which set us on the road that we’re still traveling on today (although those tactics look quaint by comparison to the horror show that we’re living in now).
Thus I started collecting quotes about the nature of democracy, power, wealth, morality and ethics, as well as quotes from the candidates themselves, and began, with the help of fellow grad students, to wheat paste them up around Chicago.
The impending second presidency of the convicted felon returned my thinking to this project, which I’ve expanded and redesigned, and to which I added one new sign each day for the entire first year of the second presidency. Passersby often effect editorial alteration to the signs, both then and now.