Writing on the Wall LLC

The United States accounts for only 5% of the world’s population, but is responsible

for nearly 22% of those in prison globally—more than 2 million people. Americans

almost never see the suffering and deeply inhuman conditions prisoners endure.

Prisoners often languish—voiceless, powerless, and unable to connect with the

outside world—and then receive little to no support when they are released and

attempt to reintegrate into society.

The Writing on the Wall, a collaboration between Mural Arts Center, Hank Willis

Thomas, Baz Dreisinger, and MASS Design Group, is a traveling exhibition and

installation constructed from essays, poems, letters, stories, diagrams and notes

written by individuals in prison around the world. The design references the

palimpsest-like writing on the walls of prison cells throughout history and layers

these onto a series of scrolls hung from an aluminum frame. Pathways and voids

within the densely hung scrolls invite viewers to participate in the installation

by walking through the hanging scrolls and literally immersing themselves in

the written content printed on the scrolls. By allowing viewers to experience

the narrative details, thoughts, and emotions of prisoners, those prisoners are

humanized while viewers are confronted with the crisis of our criminal justice

system.