Speaking Volumes: Transforming Hate 1 Favorite 

The Creativity Movement (formerly known as the World Church of the Creater) is a self proclaimed white supremacist organization with factions across the United States. In 2004, a high ranking leader of the Montana based faction defected from the group, but not before donating over 4,000 of the group's bibles called the 'RAHOWA' (acronym for racial holy war) to the Montana Human Rights Network. The MHRN set about the task of destroying the hate spewing propaganda, but hoped first to devise an anti-hate, peace inspiring solution in so doing. Enlisting the help of artists from all across the U.S., numerous artists changed the books into original works designed to 'transform hate.'

Tim Holmes a sculptor based in Helena, Montana was one of the artists who worked on the project. His installation was entitled 'Poisonous Books' and usually involved sculpting the books into various weapons; or by piercing them with assorted nails. When members of The Creativity Movement heard about his work defacing their texts, he received numerous threats from their factions across the country. Because of the threats to his life, the media began to pay attention to the work he was doing. For the next four years he received letters of support from people across the country, and helped bring name recognition to the project, inciting more interest to see it when it was publically displayed.

Holmes’s work along with more than 50 other artists’ pieces were displayed in exhibition entitled Speaking Volumes: Transforming Hate. The exhibition opened at the Holter Museum in Helena, Montana in 2008, before touring 11 different Montana venues over the course of two years. Today, Speaking Volumes is on a national tour and currently residing in Living Arts Museum in Tulsa, OK.