Böcker av Bettina Richter

Bodies act as powerful signs, as cultural settings: How are bodies represented and how are they looked at? Which types of bodies are never shown or only shown in a particular way or context? Normative ideas of beauty and the body shape our perception of ourselves and the world - and the bodies shown manifest inequalities and reflect the prevailing relations of power and violence.Talking Bodies questions the body images propagated by our visual culture through the medium of the poster. Masterpieces of art history, contemporary self-dramatizations in social media, gender stereotypes, images of black bodies, and the representation of disabled and non-normative bodies are juxtaposed and critically analyzed. With its focus on the construction and impact of body images, but also on possible strategies of resistance, the publication sees itself as a critical contribution to current debates.

As one of the most important poster designers of our time, Swiss graphic designer Niklaus Troxler (born 1947) has devoted himself primarily to jazz posters. In 1966 Troxler organized the first jazz concert in his hometown Willisau in the canton of Lucerne. In 1975 he founded a jazz festival there that has since brought both established and innovative artists in Swiss and international jazz to the stage every year. Troxler designed countless posters for the festival as well as for the individual concerts, constantly reinventing himself. If his early jazz posters were still strongly oriented towards an illustrative comprehensibility, he soon emancipated himself from any narration. His virtuoso playing in the plane translates the character of experimental music and takes up ist improvisational gestures. Troxler's posters are synesthetic experiences and make music physically tangible. He is particularly interested in type, which he always designs in new ways and with different means, exploring the limits of legibility. On the occasion of Nikolaus Troxler's 75th birthday, this publication presents a selection of Troxler's legendary jazz posters. They are juxtaposed with his political manifestos in poster form, most of which he initiated himself, and with his commissioned works, including those for the Olma agricultural fair, the Knie circus and the Geneva International Motor Show.