The archive · Public & Social · Marketing decision · 2022–2023
Worn Down by Words turns microaggressions into travelling art that feeds The Micropedia
A travelling art exhibit makes the 'death by a thousand papercuts' of microaggressions visible, its QR plaques routing visitors into The Micropedia.
Black Business and Professional Association
What it had to solve
Microaggressions are subtle and repetitive, so their damage is hard to see; advocates call it a 'death by a thousand papercuts'. A website alone could not make that harm felt, and the Canadian organisations behind The Micropedia — billed as the first encyclopedia of microaggressions — wanted the reference in as many hands as possible.
How it works
Microaggressions are subtle and repetitive, which is why advocates describe their damage as a 'death by a thousand papercuts': no single slight is big enough to prove harm, yet the accumulation grinds people down. Canadian diversity organisations wanted that effect to be felt — and wanted to get The Micropedia, billed as the first encyclopedia of microaggressions, into as many hands as possible.
Their answer was Worn Down by Words, a travelling art exhibit that makes the accumulated impact of microaggressions visible. Taking cues from the exhibition experience, each artwork was accompanied by a plaque carrying The Micropedia's mission statement and a QR code leading visitors to the encyclopedia, so a gallery visit became the front door to a reference work.
The design solved two problems at once: the exhibit supplied the emotional proof that a website cannot, while the plaques turned every visitor into a reader of the encyclopedia. The work was recognised at the D&AD Awards and now sits in the archive under Graphic Design as a model for pairing public art with a durable educational resource.
Why it lands
- An exhibit shows accumulation: visitors experience many small slights in one walk, making the 'thousand papercuts' metaphor physically legible.
- Art supplies what a website cannot — emotional proof — while the plaque on each piece keeps the educational mission in the room.
- The QR code closes the loop: every visitor leaves with a direct path into The Micropedia, so awareness converts into use.
- Because the exhibit travels, one commission can carry the campaign to many venues instead of living only behind a URL.
What it did
What had been an abstract concept became a physical, walkable experience, and every visitor left with a direct route into a lasting reference; the case was recognised at the D&AD Awards and now sits in the archive under Graphic Design.
What you can take
Make invisible, cumulative harm physical: an exhibit lets people feel the accumulation, and a QR plaque on every piece turns that feeling into a reference they can keep using.
Since then
Worn Down by Words was recognised at the D&AD Awards and filed in its archive under Graphic Design, while The Micropedia remained the destination the exhibit pointed at. The pairing — a physical experience that makes a harm undeniable, plus a reference work that lets people act on that feeling — is the part of the case that outlived any single venue.
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