Boxed in? What, Where, Why 

Insiya Dhatt  

2021 CE, San Francisco, California, USA  

Wood, paper 

N7433.4.D493 B69 2021 artist books 

Boxed in? What, Where, Why was created as a response to experiences Dhatt believed she had moved beyond, only to discover through events during and following the Covid epidemic that she was not beyond them. The physical confinement due to the pandemic, the toxic political environment, and social injustices heightened her personal exposure to compartmentalization and categorization.  Structures of race, gender, color, environment, family, and country of birth provide advantages and disadvantages to our lives. To express this, Dhatt’s three separate books combine into a singular shape, posing questions about what we are boxed in by, where associations of being boxed in come from, and how disadvantages arise due to biases. 

Bradford Davis