Unless the book is some rare or antique print where the physical copy carries some intrinsic value worth more than the actual paper its printed on, then I have no issue with using a copy of a book in a artistic but destructive fashion. If its a book that is highly regarded, there will be some sort of digital copy or other prints available. If it's some pulp romance novel that was printed once 20 years ago and has been in a used book store since then, its not really a loss if its destroyed. Of course we should preserve data to the best extent but some data isn't worth the medium its stored on. Think of every picture you've taken. Are they all priceless to you? Could you stand to lose some and still be happy with life? I could go back and cull 90% of the pictures I've taken into a core set and not worry. I don't have to since storage space is dirt cheap. Bookshelf space isn't. A library or used bookstore can only hold so many books before they are giving away stuff no one reads or just tossing them in the recycle bin.

Banned books have some sort of special value to our culture. They are usually trending books that become even more popular when some school district or public library says "We are banning book X." there will be tons of prints available to keep up with the demand. There will be digital copies too. So what if one copy ends up in some guy's art project? That wasn't the only copy and definitely won't be the last either.

I don't keep many books on my shelf. They are typically expensive textbooks that have some condensed knowledge that would be hard to obtain elsewhere. Check out the yearly lists of top banned books: http://www.ala.org/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/top10 Do you think it would be hard to obtain a copy of the Bible? or Fifty Shades of Grey? You could run to any used bookstore and pickup many of these books for dirt cheap for some dumb project.

But actual censored novels? Those are a rare find and typically don't have many prints unless they have been leaked out of a totalitarian country or published freely after the previous govt falls. But those aren't what this project is using.

"In 1983, she built a parthenon of books to mark the fall of Argentina’s dictatorship. At the end of El Partenón de Libros, two cranes tipped the structure on its side and the public was able to take the books. Minujín plans a similar fate for the books in her modern-day Parthenon, though it will contain far more than the original installation’s 20,000 books and will be on display for 100 days starting on June 10, 2017."