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Olms - April 2004 Buy @ Amazon.com / Amazon.ca |
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O O K R E V I E W
Anti-American
scum! Filthy Saddam-loving
hippies! Such are possible
descriptors you’d expect to hear from Bush-supporting, pro-war “patriots”
after a quick glimpse of the graphics featured in Peace Signs. Indeed, this large, colorful
book is quite politically charged, enough to make advocates of war and devotees
to the Bush administration quite uncomfortable. It’s subtitle, “The
Anti-War Movement Illustrated”, connotes a viewpoint—anti-war—that has
been largely marginalized since the lead-up to war in Iraq. The book is international in
scope: The featured images come from more than twenty different countries. The
book is published in Switzerland, and printed in Italy. It’s editor, James
Mann (an art director and graphic designer), is an American living in Europe
(while Howard Zinn, who writes the short-but-sweet foreword, is an American).
Everything written in the book (foreword, an interesting introduction, as well
as introductions to every chapter, and more) is presented in three
languages—English, German, and French. The book itself looks great.
It large dimensions, larger than your average book, and the pages—even the
text-based sections—jump out at the reader with vivid, engaging color. The posters and visual
designs are split up into seven sections, or chapters, including “Parody
& Satire”, “Bombs Over Baghdad”, and “Collateral Damage”. The
“No Blood For Oil” section, which contains some of the most compelling
images in the book, unfortunately reinforces the stereotype of anti-war
protesters as individuals lacking a deep understanding of the complexities of
world politics, relegated to utilizing eleven-year-old phrases to signal their
protest of the newest war in Iraq. Close-minded individuals picking up the book
will see “no blood for oil”, think “what are these idiots babbling
about?”, and leave the book on the shelf. Their loss. The ‘liberal’ Jon
Stewart, well known for his common sense and realistic, clever approach to
politics, has often chided the simplicity of the “no blood for oil” crowd.
Although oil has much to do with the Iraq war and much of the past, present and
future conflicts in the Mid-East—no matter how much US officials and pundits
deny it—the “no blood for oil” thinking shows a lack of regard for more
delicate intricacies of the reality of foreign policy (one cartoon calls Bush
“$tupid”—makes a point, but won't
convince anyone to join the anti-war side). There are a lot of great
images in the book (such as Cheney’s “Got Oil?” image, featuring black
gold oozing from Dick’s mouth), but some aren’t of the highest caliber.
Some feel as if they were thrown in for the sake of filling space (for example,
the “Murder King” parody of Burger King’s logo is rather pointless), but
in general, everything meshes together to depict a perceptual landscape of the
anti-war movement’s idealistic spirit. Robert Furs
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© 2004 CounterBias.com
