For Reasons of State examines how our ability to function as a democracy is compromised by governmental secrecy. Looking at contemporary art, the book explores notions of institutional concealment through the work of such artists as the Bureau of Inverse Technology, Jenny Holzer, Lin + Lam, Mark Lombardi, Trevor Paglen, and Susan Schluppi--all of whom provide the public with a new way of looking at information that is otherwise censored or misrepresented due to government or corporate influence. Distributed for the Whitney Museum of American Art