Careless Talk Costs Lives: Fougasse & the Art of Public Information

During World War II, the British government issued a series of public warnings in the form of witty posters by the brilliant cartoonist Fougasse, a.k.a. Cyril Kenneth Bird. (“Don't forget that walls have ears!” a fashionable woman whispers to a friend, as Hitler's face peers ominously out of the wallpaper.) This illustrated tribute to one of Britain's most popular artists begins with his celebrated WWII posters and continues with his later work for Punch magazine and elsewhere. An important contribution to the history of both cartooning and propaganda, it compares the relative effectiveness of hard-hitting American wartime designs versus Fougasse's light touch.