Mai 68: affiches

Titled May 68: affiches, this book collects posters from May and June 1968, most of which were printed by the Atelier Populaire. It is dated June 27, 1968 (the same day police raided the Atelier Populaire, resulting in its closure) and was published by Tchou, a French publisher specializing in limited editions. The introduction is by Jean Cassou, a French writer, art critic, poet, and member of the French Resistance during World War II, who also served as the first Director of the Musée national d’Art moderne in Paris.

An oversize book, the posters are reproduced at roughly quarter-scale in bright, flat colors not always matching the original. The colophon states “Notre choix a écarté les affiches pouvant évoquer l’appel à la violence et celles ayant un caractère diffamatoire à l’égard de personnes privées ou officielles,” roughly translated to: “our choice dismissed posters that could evoke the call to violence and those with a defamatory character towards private or official persons.” Although the Atelier Populaire was an anonymous collective, the colophon also includes a list artists who whose work was included: Alechinsky, Asger Jorn, Bona-Pieyre de Mandiargues, Costa, Cremonini-Gaudibert, Dufour-Butor, Matta, Milhaud, Ségui, Dilva-Cortazar, Effel, Sempé and Tim.

Although the posters were popular at the time of the uprisings, and there are accounts of people collecting the posters from the streets,[1] this book goes against the Atelier Populaire’s ethos that the posters were “weapons in the service of the struggle… their rightful place is in the centres of conflict.”[2]