This past winter, my alma mater the Rhode Island School of Design, held an exhibit called Wunderground at the RISD museum. It celebrated the radical underground art scene of the city of Providence. This book is a companion publication to the show. The show, which I unfortunately missed, was set up in two galleries. The first gallery featured Shangri-la-la-land, a sculptural installation created by Mat Brinkman, Brian Chippendale, Jim Drain, Leif Goldberg, Jungil Hong, Xander Marro, Erin Rosenthal and Pippi Zornoza. The other gallery held over two thousand handmade posters presented in a floor-to-ceiling display. These were posters for rock shows, political and community events and art exhibits created between 1995 and 2005. This book displays a lot of those along with four fold-out gatefolds with photos of events at Fort Thunder, The Dirt Palace and other scenes around Providence. There’s also a foreword from Gary Panter and lots of interviews and writings by the artists who created these posters or witnessed the events. I recognize some of the posters from my four years living in Providence. I ripped a few posters off the walls after the events were over. A Xander Marro poster for a Movies with Live Soundtracks event is framed and hanging in my bathroom. Her posters are probably my favorites. I’m so glad this book was put together, although I am slightly dissappointed with the cover design. It’s a wrap around that opens up into a big poster. But the poster side is mostly big, computer set text. The exhibit and book celebrate the handmade poster, and I feel like they could have designed something that was more representative. You can read more about the exhibit here and pick up a copy of the book here.

© Julia Rothman 2007