Political Illustration

Political Illustration introduces students of illustration, visual communication, art, and political science to how political illustration works, when it’s used and why.

Through a variety of examples – from the coins of Julius Caesar to contemporary art challenging Indigenous American stereotypes – the book covers propaganda, the impact of media, censorship, and taboo, and the role of contentious politics and dissent art. A wide range of contemporary illustration mediums are included, including street art, the graphic novel, and mixed assemblage illustration, in order to examine the role of media and technique in political messaging.

The book features breakout interviews and case studies on prominent global political illustrators like Edel Rodriguez, Anita Kunz, and Fabian Williams, along with full-colour examples. The authors include an introduction to semiotics, visual grammar, and visual communication theory, and how these approaches contribute to the decoding of political messages – and how these tactics are used by those ruling, and those being ruled.

In particular, the authors look at political illustration, protest art, and propaganda related to:

• American and European Imperialism
• Japanese internment
• The World Wars
• The Soviet Union and China
• Dictatorships in Africa and South America
• Civil Rights movements
• Contemporary protests and marches, including the Women’s March (2017) and the Egyptian Revolution (2011)
• ...and many more periods, events, and movements