Graphic Agitation: Social and Political Graphics Since the Sixties

The global use of graphics for propaganda and protest is surveyed in this vibrant album. The 300 color photographs reproducing posters, billboards, ads, T-shirts and graffiti occasionally portray the graphic voice of the establishment (e.g., U.S. presidential campaign paraphernalia) but mostly feature dissent and agitation on behalf of human rights, environmentalism, anti-war and anti-nuclear protest, feminism, sexual politics, gay rights, AIDS awareness, the struggle for racial equality, the end to apartheid and poverty and drug abuse and homelessness. McQuiston, an American graphic designer based in Britain, sets works by Jenny Holzer, Keith Haring, Tomi Ungerer and Roy Lichtenstein alongside graphics by less well-known artists from Czechoslovakia to Malaysia. The book is an enlightening, kinetic social history of political graphics and a rich resource for artists, designers and activists. (Nov.)