The Word on the Street

Street messages are everywhere. Today huge billboards with advertising and empty messages are dominating the messages of our streets. But there are other messages too: a growing number of artists who leave their personal, philosophical, lyrical or political texts. Whole cities decorate their facades with poems and political organisations use the methods of graffiti and the advertising industry to spread their messages to a wider audience. The artistic street messages are not merely graffiti in the form of senseless tagging on walls, buses or trains - they are a distinctive form of art meant to inspire us, lift us and move us all and draw our attention to the imbalances in society and between people. This book contains 125 of the greatest, coolest and most striking examples as they were spotted around the world.