# David Wojnarowicz American artist, writer, and AIDS activist (1954–1992) — the [[AIDS Crisis]]'s fiercest visual chronicler and the [[NEA Culture Wars]]' most combative target. His catalog essay for the 1989 Artists Space exhibition *Witnesses: Against Our Vanishing* — attacking [[Jesse Helms]] and Cardinal O'Connor by name — provoked the NEA's brief defunding of the show. In 1990 he sued [[Donald Wildmon]] and the [[American Family Association]] for cropping his images into fundraising propaganda, and won. Author of *Close to the Knives*; the famous jacket photo text: "If I die of AIDS — forget burial — just drop my body on the steps of the F.D.A." Died of AIDS at 37. His *A Fire in My Belly* was censored again — by the [[Smithsonian Institution]], under Catholic League pressure — in 2010, proving the playbook outlived its authors. ## See Also - [[NEA Culture Wars]] · [[AIDS Crisis Timeline]]