The world of Russian public notices is fascinating, bizarre and saturated in tragic-comedy: "An old woman. Left home and has not returned. Small, hunchbacked. Wears: a blue dress, red wool cardigan, a white handkerchief with red flowers on her head, grey slippers on her feet. Does not have memory." The authors and readers of these usually handwritten notices are members of Russia's underclass, made visible by these acts of public address which so often go unread. In this secret economy of exchange and communication, you can swap a voucher for an airplane or help to find a missing earring lost "during the fireworks on the Day of Cosmonauts." All over Russia, all sorts of surfaces, stationary or mobile, have been papered over with such notices. The folklorist, lexicographer and contributor to the related publications Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopedia Volumes I and II, Alexei Plutser-Sarno, has been collecting these public notices from all over Russia for many years. Notes From Russia features the highlights of Plutser-Sarno's collection, which, combined with his commentaries, tells an alternative story of recent Russian culture. Designed as part of Fuel's acclaimed Russian series of books, and printed on an unusual mix of white and brown craft paper, Notes From Russia is a moving and vital contribution to the documentation of vernacular graphics.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By monica
Format:Hardcover
Plutser-Sarno has been collecting Russian street messages, usually hand-written and posted on walls, for two decades; this book is a sampling from his Museuam of Ads and Announcements. The notes are of a great variety: seeking recruits for cults or prostitution, offering items, some of them bizzare ones, for barter, warning miscreants of dire harm should they, for example, continue to steal light bulbs from a common corridor, prohibiting--predictably--a wide range of activities, and occasionally pleading in tones of insanity.
Many of the messages are shown in illustrations, and Pluter-Sarno offers brief comments, sometimes necessary ones:
Without them I shouldn't have known that 'artificial rock' was a euphemism for a concrete slab. I'm sorry though that he didn't explain what curious Slavic behaviours created the need for notices in public lavoratories asking users to abstain from standing on toilet bowls. Given the range of notes here, it's possible for the reader to get a hint of Soviet and post-Soviet customs and beliefs, the daily struggling with poverty and paucity, and the impact of the political upon the individual.
Because Fuel, the publisher, is a design company it's small wonder that as an object this is a wonderful book. It's a small hardback with a cover done in relief, and sewn in signatures. The outer 2/3 of the pages are a kraft-paper brown and the inner 1/3, with colour illustrations, a cream colour. . .Shame about those grocer's apostrophes, though.
I've not rated this more highly simply because whilst it's entertaining, informative, and lovely to look at it is nonetheless not of huge significance or impact. Call it a very superior or upmarket version of those bedside books of lists, grafitti, heroic failures and so on.... Read more ›
Many of the messages are shown in illustrations, and Pluter-Sarno offers brief comments, sometimes necessary ones:
Without them I shouldn't have known that 'artificial rock' was a euphemism for a concrete slab. I'm sorry though that he didn't explain what curious Slavic behaviours created the need for notices in public lavoratories asking users to abstain from standing on toilet bowls. Given the range of notes here, it's possible for the reader to get a hint of Soviet and post-Soviet customs and beliefs, the daily struggling with poverty and paucity, and the impact of the political upon the individual.
Because Fuel, the publisher, is a design company it's small wonder that as an object this is a wonderful book. It's a small hardback with a cover done in relief, and sewn in signatures. The outer 2/3 of the pages are a kraft-paper brown and the inner 1/3, with colour illustrations, a cream colour. . .Shame about those grocer's apostrophes, though.
I've not rated this more highly simply because whilst it's entertaining, informative, and lovely to look at it is nonetheless not of huge significance or impact. Call it a very superior or upmarket version of those bedside books of lists, grafitti, heroic failures and so on.... Read more ›
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