Obscured Publications | Philip Lique & Najja Moon

Obscured Publications, promoting social-distancing through the maze-like hallway system inside the organization’s historic bakery building.

The project involves a series of wall-mounted chevron arrow-shaped book stations that “point” visitors towards a one-way indoor circulation path that passes by artists’ studios and leads to installations and exhibitions located throughout the space.

The stations house recently gifted books from the Boca Raton Museum of Art that now comprise a new permanent art library on our campus. The books are wrapped in double-sided broadsheets with prints designed by the artists which encourage visitors to see what lies behind each cover. Lique’s geometric book jacket design emerges from the artist’s interest in mazes and grids while Moon’s linear cover is an improvisational notation on language movement and sound. The book jackets in obscuring the titles of the books prevent visitors from being able to judge the books by their covers. Rather visitors are confronted with subjects ideas and histories that might be unfamiliar or unknown and encouraged to discover.

Inspired by the Fluxus Art Movement the artists have included poetic prompts at each book station enabling visitors to interact with the library; they are encouraged to leave their “mark” on a page of the notepad provided or flag a page in a book that contains something they find to be special. Golf pencils with the phrase “Use this pencil until you run out of ideas” will available at these stations as take-away souvenirs.

About the Artists

Philip Lique is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice focuses on Western civilization religion occult practices and art history themes that often become source material for sculpture installation printmaking and independent publications. Lique works with EXILE Books as well as other organizations artists and institutions as a freelancer to produce exhibits programming printed matter and objects. Transplanted from New Haven CT he has lived and worked in Miami since 2016.

Najja Moon is a Miami-based artist and cultural practitioner born and raised in North Carolina. Her practice is centered on the idea that art is utilitarian. An amalgamation of practicalities that improve her life; design and language cultural responsibility and community her visual arts practice uses drawing and text to explore the intersections of queer identity the body and movement black culture and familiar relations both personal and communal.