Review: Written in the city

Written in the city - graffiti messages world wide - axel albin & josh kamler

This book is interesting because it focuses on the random rant graffiti - stuff with text over style and content over form. There is some attractive work here also. Plenty of poiniant, witty and strange here to see. Sometimes it goes a bit off track but its all interesting and part of the eclectic point of this work.

A better byline might have been from the inside front cover - someone is trying to tell you something. Mostly messsages - less about branding and ego and aesthetics. There is a fair amount of stenciling as it often marries this kind of content with art - with banksy being the best example.

A needed book on a neglected field of graffiti. Possibly more true to the spirit of literate peoples urban graffiti through all history, before trains names and being cool and successful became part of the package.