Les Wisner

Les Wisner was a student at RISD in 1978 when he designed the Private Parts show as a collaborative senior project. The Private Parts show was a RISD student gallery exhibition that featured a range of art related to the theme of Private Parts. After news of the show reached the public, Providence Police raided the gallery and confiscated much of the artwork. Police told the group it was in violation of a new obscenity law, passed only days before. Organizers of the exhibit sued the city of violation of their first amendment rights. (The show was legally represented by attorneys Lynette Labinger and John Roney.) The judge ruled that the exhibit should be protected as art and ordered that the city pay for the damage caused to the confiscated work.