Posters: A Global History

Description

Posters are ubiquitous. They hang on office walls, bedroom doors and bus shelters. But what relevance do they have today in our age of image saturation, of prolific social media and electronic devices? In Posters: A Global History Elizabeth E. Guffey tells the story of this ephemeral art form, from its birth in the nineteenth century to its place in contemporary culture. In Posters: A Global History Elizabeth Guffey tells the story of this ephemeral art form, from its birth in the nineteenth century to its place in contemporary culture. She argues that even among today's burgeoning digital media, few forms of graphic design can rival posters for their tangibility and sheer spatial presence.

Elizabeth E. Guffey is Professor of Art and Design History at the State University of New York, Purchase, and founding editor of academic journal Design and Culture. She is the author of Retro: The Culture of Revival (Reaktion, 2006).

"Guffey rescues the poster from its well-meaning but largely fetishized history by connoisseurs, curators, and collectors and compellingly chronicles the past, present, and future lives of this staple of communication. Taking an expansive view of the subject, Guffey reaches far and wide and across the ages for her examples and provides a much-needed cultural context to the diverse roles posters perform in a society--whether connecting communities, building nationalism, inciting consumption, or raising awareness. "Posters: A Global History" is an important addition to design history and a timely reminder of the power of print in the age of the Internet." --Andrew Blauvelt, Senior Curator, Architecture and Design, Walker Art Center