Martha Cooper – Going Postal

I just received my copy of Martha Cooper’s newest book Going Postal the other day and it’s pretty much what I expected. Street-Art books are getting pretty run of the mill these days, covering all of the same artists. While Cooper’s reputation allows her access to some of the more elusive artists, any work of this type worth covering is already on the street.

The strength of this book is in its showcase of work by unknown artists. Since stickers are one of the preferred media of traveling writers, the book credits the city in which the sticker was spotted versus crediting the writers themselves.

As a fan of sticker art I would have loved to see this book go a bit more in depth. At only 96 pages it seems a bit light, and tends to focus an inordinate amount on too few artists. Perhaps in that aspect my personal taste runs askew to the books. I would have liked to see it be a bit more tag and hand style heavy, and less stencil and street art heavy.

I’d love to see if I can dig up any of my old stickers. I used to have stacks and stacks of the USPS priority mail ones. I lost my old blackbook about a month or two ago and have been pretty depressed that I don’t have many of my old sketches/flicks. I was, however, able to dig up these photos from years ago I took one afternoon before I went out on the town.