48 pages 29.7 x 21 cm Language: English Softcover Publisher: Underground Productions 2003
Issue 25 of the long-running Stockholm magazine Underground Productions — Swedish in origin but written in English — offers a sharp snapshot of Nordic street culture and the art of lettering at the turn of the millennium. It carries an uncompromising survey of the Scandinavian scene: a feature on Finnish writing shot in Helsinki with the style painters Stab & Skip, Lady on the question of style and attitude, and a turn toward American typography with a portrait of the legendary graphic designer Ed Fella, the self-styled "King of Blackbooks."
Far from a mere photographic archive, the issue runs a road-trip travelogue following Skize, Mander, Finsta and Core on their summer tour, a retrospective marking the tenth anniversary of Norrköping's Hall of Fame — the largest in Sweden — and a theoretical discussion of biting built around "The Great Paraphrase." It also shows its political teeth: the pointed article "Politicians out of sync" takes aim at the zero-tolerance policy and the hardline anti-graffiti laws then passed by the Swedish Parliament. Throughout, pictures from across Sweden round out the whole.
