The Codex of the Statue of Four Lies (available at the University of Houston Special Collections)

Here at Special Collections, we just love The Art Guys.  That is, we love them until they start to hurt our brains by making us think.

Since 2010, when “The Statue of Four Lies” was added to the hundreds of other pieces of art that adorn our fine campus, a certain rite of passage seems to have been established.  Each fall semester, green undergraduate freshmen stumble by the piece, full of double takes and perplexed head scratching.  In time, they transform into jaundiced sophomores who long ago gave up trying to apply meaning to the statue and, instead, have retreated back into their academia in hopes of finding meaning.  Now, almost four years later, the occasional graduate student still stroll by with a scoff and roll of her eyes at those who continue to stand next to the statue in bewilderment.

open drawer of the Codex

Over these years the public has not been at a loss of ideas and theories as to “what it all means,” anyway and countless theories have surfaced.  Some argue it is a treatise on the nature of truth vs. Truth.  Others will put forward the theory that the statue is a critique on the ubiquitous and acceptable nature of lies as the basis of our day-to-day existence.  Here in Special Collections, of course, we knew all along that the statue was really… well…

We don’t want to ruin it for you.

However, the loyal Cougars that they are, The Art Guys made sure to house the Codex of the Statue of Four Lies here in Special Collections.  Particularly observant visitors to the statue’s website will note in the fine print that the, “CODEX SPECIALIBUS IN COLLECTIONIBUS BIBLIOTHECAE INVENITUR.”  So, don’t you want all the answers?  Don’t you want to know what it all means?  Just take a trip up to the second floor of the M.D. Anderson Library and ask to see the Codex Specialibus to have the Truth truth revealed.

Or, is that a lie?

Knowing The Art Guys and their proclivity for playfulness and ambiguity, you may walk away with more questions and, really, is that such a bad thing?