Art & Resistance Books & Poster Art

During our Celebrate People’s History Art Show May 4th – June 23, we have acquired a special new collection of books about art & resistance. Currently these books are featured at Studio West until the show closes. Then, they will be back on the “new items” shelf here at the library. Besides these new items, we have an entire art, arts, & artists section at the library worth checking out (no pun intented)

Here are the following titles of interest;

Paper Politics : Socially Engaged Printmaking Today

With a widely eclectic variety of protest art in mediums such as relief, lithography, collagraph, and photography, this major collection of contemporary politically engaged printmaking showcases art that uses themes of social justice and global equity to engage community members in conversation. Based on an art exhibition that has traveled to more than a dozen cities in North America and including many do-it-yourself samples, this eye opening book contains works from more than 200 international artists. From the well established—Sue Coe, Swoon, Carlos Cortez—to street artists, rock poster makers, and up-and-comers such as Favianna Rodriguez and Chris Stain, this diverse collection is the work of artists who felt the need to respond to the monumental trends and events of modern politics.

Signal: 01 : A Journal of International Political Graphics

Dedicated to documenting the compelling graphics, art projects, and cultural movements of international resistance and liberation struggles, this unique resource serves as an active discussion of the role of art in revolution. Introducing the artists and cultural workers who have been at the center of upheavals and revolts, this work expands beyond graphic arts and includes political posters, comics, murals, zines, and features works from both present and past—from political freight train graffiti to subversive photo montages in 1980s San Francisco.

Firebrands : Portraits from the Americas

Curated by the Justseeds Artists’ Collective, Firebrands is 178 pages of art, world history, and dangerous information. These beautifully illustrated mini-poster pages showcase radicals, dissidents, folk singers, and rabble-rousers, from Emma Goldman to Tupac, Pablo Neruda to Fred Hampton. As say editors Shaun Slifer and Bec Young in the introduction, the book “is especially made for anyone who has sat, trembling with frustration and disappointment in history class, or reading a text book heavily edited of anything interesting or useful. It’s for all our ancestors, especially for the ones left out of or misrepresented in said textbook, because they were too brown, too female, too poor, too queer, too uneducated, too disabled, or because they felt or thought too much.” This is a real people’s history, a book packed with dynamite, desire, and, above all, courage.

Signs of Change : Social Movement Cultures from the 1960’s to Now

Drawn from an exhibition at Exit Art, a cultural center in New York City, Signs of Change is a visual archive of more than 350 posters, prints, photographs, films, videos, music, and ephemera from more than twenty-five nations. Surveying the creative work of dozens of international social movements, from the do-it-yourself graphics and media of the 1960s to today’s instantaneous digital technologies, it investigates the themes and representations of global struggles for equality, democracy, freedom, and basic human rights. This groundbreaking work illustrates the extraordinary aesthetic range of radical movements during the past fifty years and explores the rise of powerful countercultures that evolve beyond traditional politics, creating distinct forms of art, lifestyles, and social organizations. 178 pages of full-color illustrations!

Enjoy all these titles now at the Durland Alternatives Library!

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Ryan Clover-Owens

I'm on a mission to prove that we can live in a society that reconciles with our history, respects difference, cherishes the land and animals, and can create solutions to the challenges we face.