In the early months of 2001, in quiet obscurity, a man meticulously cut up books at the Chinatown and main branches of the San Francisco Public Library.

The man responsible for the crime used the library database to find his material. Most of the vandalized works had subjects that dealt with gay and lesbian topics, AIDS, and women’s issues, but he also damaged books by author Gay Talese and even a novel about the Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the atomic bomb over Hiroshima at the end of World War II.

The incident started with an initial report of three slashed books at the Chinatown branch and led to the eventual discovery of hundreds of sliced tomes hidden under shelves in the main branch.

“This blew up from one tiny little thing to a massive discovery,” said Milanda Moore, a San Francisco Police Department inspector in the Hate Crimes unit who worked on the case.

The perpetrator, John Perkyns, didn’t stop at aesthetically defacing the books. He went further, cutting slips of paper promoting a bible-based radio station and took the front cover of heterosexual romance novels and slipped them inside the pages.

“He was an average looking guy,” said Moore. “He was quite mild-mannered. He could sit down next to you and you’d never know he had just done intricate cutting."

When Perkyns, a 46-year-old apartment building security officer, was finally caught by librarian Nancy Silverrod, he had already damaged 607 books.

On a Sunday afternoon, Silverrod pretended to read as she scoped out a place where some of the books had previously been found.

“Sure enough he came and was trying to hide a book,” said Silverrod.

Although Perkyns could not be arrested on the spot, a warrant to search his house was issued to the San Francisco Police Department. Razorblades and other evidence linking him to the crime was found at his apartment. He was ultimately arrested at the libraries Chinatown branch, as he read a book.

“Putting a stop to it [the vandalism] was important but losing so many books and the amount of money it would cost to replace them was high,” said Silverrod.

Instead of discarding the books -- which were totaled to be worth over $26,000, many of them already out of print -- the library started a campaign to turn the hate crime into art. The story spread throughout the country and as a result, the exhibit, “Reversing Vandalism” was born.

The show includes over 200 works of art made with a variety of media and the damaged books from the library.

James Mason, materials manager for the libraries general collection, was in charge of cataloging each book that was found.

“To me going to the exhibit is like visiting a funeral,” said Mason. “I found the bodies and tried to piece them together- barcode to book. Now the bodies are all dressed up on public display.”

The show is bringing publicity to the very books Perkyns wanted to destroy.

Ruth Davis, a Phoenix artist, learned of the project through e-mail with other artists. Her piece, “The Language Police” uses found objects and the novel, "A Time to Live" by Jim Brogan. When Davis first read the book's content, she admitted she was shocked. She thought the descriptions about sex were “graphic and unappealing” but later realized that if she attempted to censor the language when creating her art she would be just as criminal as Perkyns was when he damaged the novel.

After struggling with what to do with the piece, Davis had the idea of creating a body out of the torn pages of the book.

“I think the body idea came from the maleness of the subject material,” said Davis. “I originally considered making a paper mache penis but I wanted the piece to be about humanity not just men."

Davis plans to visit San Francisco in April to see the exhibit.

In "Blackbird Singing", Susan Carver, a Santa Cruz resident, took the novel "Fighting Words," by Michael Brown, and turned it into a three-dimensional model of a bird.

Each piece of artwork is accompanied with a statement from the artist which attempts to explain their creative process.

Even with the large amount of community support for “Reversing Vandalism,” Perkyns faced no time in jail. Investigator Moore said it is not unusual for there to be no jail time in a vandalism case. Perkyns was ordered to pay $9,600 in fines to the library and is on five years probation.

“I pushed for counseling on gay, lesbian and transgender issues for Perkyns but his lawyer was vehemently against it,” said Moore.

John Perkyns was unavailable for comment.

“Reversing Vandalism” runs through May 2, 2004, at the Main Library, 100 Larkin Street. The exhibit is located in three places in the library, the lower level in the Jewett Gallery; third floor in the Hormel Center; and the Grove Street entrance. For more information visit the libraries Web site at www.SFPL.org.