Book Review: Gig Posters

Title: Gig Posters Volume 1: Rock Show Art of the 21st Century
Author: Clay Hayes
Publisher: Quirk Books
Pages: 208 pages
Price: $55.95

Gig Posters : Rock Show Art of the 21st Century by Clay Hayes of gigposters.com Includes over 700 poster images and 101 ready to frame posters. Gigposters.com is worth a post in itself, it is (as the books introduction states) "the world's largest historical archive of this art form". The website itself is vast, and at times it's not worth the effort to sift through to find the really good work hidden among the average. The book however contains only the very best.
The designers and illustrators are mostly North American with a few European artists. Each artist's work is featured in the form of one full sized poster and a few smaller thumbnails along with a brief, organized bio including info on their education, preferred mediums etc. Each full sized poster is detachable so it can be easily framed. but thankfully the perforations aren't so deep that the pages will detach by themselves over time. The work is exceptional, especially the conceptual images of artists like Jason Munn of The Small Stakes.
The book is oversized, measuring 13.9 x 10.9 x 1 inches so the posters are seen in a more true to life size, than if they were featured in an annual or your average book.