Customer Reviews

Sign Language: Street Signs As Folk Art

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I love John Baeder's diner paintings and on that basis I bought this book (fortunately, as it turns out, quite cheaply) because I knew of his interest in street scene Americana. I think the editorial premise of the book is very weak though. Just because someone does a bit of lettering, NO PARKING for instance, and places it outside their property doesn't make it folk art. Nearly all the photos in the book are hand-made and totally amateurish looking. Very few of these `art' creators would have done it themselves if professional looking signs were dirt cheap to buy.

Baeder mentions in his intro that Lee Boltin's wonderful `Jail Keys Made Here' book (from 1959) sort of inspired him but that book was a collection of offbeat sign photos that were, in the most part, professional and had a quirky meaning. Examples include a van with BLIND MAN DRIVING across the front (window blind repairs) a music shop marquee saying STEREO TAPES FOR PEOPLE WITH TWO EARS or my favorite, on a shop front: EVERYTHING ELECTRICAL -- FROM SOUP TO NUTS. Baeder's book just doesn't compare to the intriguing signs in the Boltin Book.

Sign Language is pleasantly produced (with a 175 screen) with each of the 205 photos (some are in color) getting a caption, though some don't really deserve one but I can't see that I will be looking through it too often.

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.

While there are some fine examples of street signs that can be appreciated as "folk art", many of the examples in this book are just interestingly lettered signs. And after a while, I wanted something more than just a photographic showcase of interesting letters and typography. Unlike some of the hand-painted garden signs from Howard Finster's Paradise Gardens, or the "spirit" writing of J.B. Murray, or the frenzied writings of Prophet Royal Robertson which express the unique world view of the artist, many of the hand-written signs in this book are just interestingly lettered or arranged. Some are fun to look at, but as a whole this group of signs falls far below a great showing of "folk art."

In my opinion, this book is a case of someone wanting to make something into folk art...the author's are just reaching a little too far in most of the illustrations. It's great that someone has travelled extensively and photographed these signs that most of us will never see, but to make the case they are folk art is stretching it and a little misleading. Perhaps I was expecting more, but other than being visually pleasing, the signs shown were otherwise unengaging. While I wanted to like this book, I gave it 2 stars for the attempt, but it falls short of being a great survey of folk art signs.