Customer Reviews

Peel: The Art Of The Sticker

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When it comes to the source most original in bringing art on the periphery to the general audience, few publishers can keep up with Mark Batty Publisher. Seemingly always on the lookout for art on the edge, these books are not only inventive and creative, but they also are beautifully designed and devoted to entertainment as much as to enlightenment.

Take PEEL: THE ART OF THE STICKER for example. This richly colorful volume is a collection highlights of eight issues of the magazine PEEL - the creation of Dave and Holly Combs. At once artistic and rich in iconology and just plain buffoonery, the magazine focuses on the satire found along the streets of this country, enhanced of course by some free-spirited artists who find ways to use the most mundane of objects to make us laugh or, at least, take notice of our own foibles. Comments on sociopolitical issues, graffiti-like refuse, and variations of thoughts created on those awful 'Hello, my name is...' stickers pasted on our passive bodies in attendance at parties, rallies, and meetings, words and drawings and photos superimposed on Priority Mail stickers in a feeble attempt to balk the postal system - this list is a short beginning to the wild fantasies acted out by sticker-mania.

In addition to copious photographs of many stickers found in PEEL Magazine, and since this is a book and not just another issue, there are included in these pages some interviews with artists and participants in this pop art medium that say not only a lot about the meaning of stickers and manipulations of common articles of the day, but also inform us about the way we view our world and value 'things' - at times being offended that some artist would 'defile' these icons. Add to that the naughty images (see: Colaborate [sic] because its good for you' chapter) and the actual stickers the reader (or book owner!) can peel off the page to embellish the environment both personal and public, and the tenor of this absorbing book comes into focus.

'Gallery art stays indoors protected with glass and controlled lighting whereas street art fades and changes over time. These differences are analogous to the differences in modernism an post-modernism.' This is an entertaining book for any reader and a must read for students of art in art school today. As always fine parody is based on wisdom - and there is a plethora of both in this terrific book! Grady Harp, May 08

Used this book to decorate my bike, and it contained a ton of attitude. It was also inspiring and allowed me to discover a new art form. Stickers definitely contain a certain sarcasm and loudness that demonstrates the qualities of their authors. Really cool archive and inspirational.

The volume offers a significant selection from the run of Peel Magazine, which exposes the key influence in the recognition of urban stickers, in particular in the USA.
A good overview of artists, thematic selections, are peppered with fair interviews, and other elements of urban culture such as decorated or tuned-up toys, or several forms of street art without losing much track of stickers as such.

The book works well as a Peel Magazine reader, while falling a bit short of being that overarching representative of sticker culture that some might have one believe, let alone offering much of a critical insight in street art practices and visual culture. The interviews are adequately conducted, with more or less interest depending on the selected artist, and with slight self-serving tone developing in the questions as they reflect and compare the work of the artist to that of the success of the magazine, for instance in the perfunctory and fully reprinted interview with Shepard Fairey. But in any event, it is a rather welcome offer to document one of the highlights of sticker cultures of the past decade in print form.

Street art takes big cities Through The sticker giving color to the cold, gray cities world.This book shows how the underground artists are displayed along through their stickers supplying these hidden messages and full of colr to unsuspecting passersby.
Recommended

I will make this very short. If you like Street Art, this is the book for you. Tons of great artist inverviews and lots of great photos of stickers, stencils and graffiti. Buy this book now.