Truly bistable twisted nematic liquid crystal display has been fabricated using photoalignment. This display can be switched between the -22.5degrees and 157.5degrees twist states by breaking the anchoring condition on one of the substrates. The application of a photoalignable polymer SDA-1 was able to achieve the weak anchoring energy necessary for switching. Both theoretical and experimental results show that this mode has excellent contrast ratio and wide viewing angles. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.