Factual storytelling: graphic illustrations expose the new tyranny of the 21st century
Handbook of Tyranny portrays the routine cruelties of the 21st century through a series of detailed nonfictional graphic illustrations. None of these cruelties represent extraordinary violence—they reflect day-to-day implementation of laws and regulations around the globe. Every page of the book questions our current world of walls and fences, police tactics and prison cells, crowd control and refugee camps. The dry and factual style of storytelling through technical drawings is the graphic equivalent to bureaucratic rigidity born of laws and regulations. The level of detail depicted in the illustrations of the book mirrors the repressive efforts taken by authorities around the globe.
The 21st century shows a general striving for an ever more regulated and protective society. Yet the scale of authoritarian intervention and its stealth design adds to the growing difficulty of linking cause and effect. By bluntly showing the designs, Handbook of Tyranny gives a profound insight into the relationship between political power, territoriality and systematic cruelties.
Theo Deutinger is an architect, writer and designer of sociocultural maps. He has regular lecture and teaching engagements with various institutions, including Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Strelka Institute Moscow and the Bauhaus in Dessau.
Featured image is reproduced from Handbook of Tyranny.
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
Bookforum
Julian Rose
A highly sophisticated and genuinely thoughtful design.
On the Seawall
Ron Slate
To spread Handbook of Tyranny in your lap and absorb the visual shock and textual impact of Deutinger’s diagrams and terse analyses is to gaze upon a global condition. One benefit – we get to move beyond the noise of our own wall dramas and recognize that the movement and constraint of peoples is the main challenge presented to all territories.
“Where are we now?” asked David Bowie in a song on his second-to-last album. The song describes an old man strolling through Berlin, reflecting upon the changes that took place in 1989. Bowie’s question is asked in a time that sees the return of topics and technologies that ought to be long gone, such as a wall dividing a country into east and west. Once, the fall of such a wall heralded a new age and the promise of a peaceful global future. The technology that soon followed—the mobile phone and the World Wide Web—fueled visions of an open, transparent, and mobile society.
There is no single answer to Bowie’s question. With "Handbook of Tyranny," I try to contribute to the many attempts to answer it, while also interpreting the question as a command. That’s why the book is born out of curiosity and even more so out of a sense of duty. Tackling the question in my medium—illustrating the walls that separate countries, the water cannons directed against protesters, and the modes of capital punishment—gives this book the appearance of an unearthed compendium of blueprints drawn by or for a dictator of our time. For every obstacle to organizing and controlling society, there seems to be a technical solution at hand. The illustrated details—the sheer number and the bluntness of these technologies—profoundly reinforce their cruelty.
To draw is to minimize, realize, and internalize. Just as an atlas explains the world we inhabit, "Handbook of Tyranny" helps the reader to grasp the forms of cruelty in use. The experience is like standing on a watchtower with a pair of binoculars: having an overview but also a zoomed-in view of the essential details. A confrontation with cruelty is necessary first to understand it, and second to react to it. Depicting the magnitude of technology as an instrument of power and showing the myriad forms this can take, "Handbook of Tyranny" provides a basis for everyone who wants to fight tyranny.
On a spring day, while sitting on a bench, you adjust your arm so that it is resting along the thin metal divider between each seat. This simple gesture is something that you would never think to reflect upon—the seat is comfortable enough for temporary leisure; you don't ponder its existence before or after engagement with it. But if you were looking for a place to sleep, perhaps you would question this sly design element that has made your quest impossible. continue to blog
This first illustration in Theo Deutinger’s higly anticipated Handbook of Tyranny—new from our newest publisher, Lars Müller—shows the increase in human range from pre-modern javelin throwing (100 meters) to modern sniper rifle fire (3540 meters). Other illustrations detail the various types of anti-vehicle barriers, walls and fences; chart world terrorist groups; and list all forms of death penalty—among other structures and practices. We are pleased to welcome Lars Müller’s esteemed program to our list, and delighted to begin with this unprecedented rendering of the cruelties of our world in graphic illustration. continue to blog
Saturday, June 16 at 4PM, Lars Müller Publishers and the Artbook @ MoMA PS1 Book Space invite you to a presentation, discussion and book signing to celebrate the publication of Theo Deutinger's Handbook of Tyranny. continue to blog
FORMAT: Hbk, 8.25 x 11.75 in. / 160 pgs / 987 color. LIST PRICE: U.S. $30.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $40 ISBN: 9783037785348 PUBLISHER: Lars Müller Publishers AVAILABLE: 2/27/2018 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Out of print AVAILABILITY: Not available TERRITORY: NA LA
Published by Lars Müller Publishers. By Theo Deutinger.
Factual storytelling: graphic illustrations expose the new tyranny of the 21st century
Handbook of Tyranny portrays the routine cruelties of the 21st century through a series of detailed nonfictional graphic illustrations. None of these cruelties represent extraordinary violence—they reflect day-to-day implementation of laws and regulations around the globe. Every page of the book questions our current world of walls and fences, police tactics and prison cells, crowd control and refugee camps. The dry and factual style of storytelling through technical drawings is the graphic equivalent to bureaucratic rigidity born of laws and regulations. The level of detail depicted in the illustrations of the book mirrors the repressive efforts taken by authorities around the globe.
The 21st century shows a general striving for an ever more regulated and protective society. Yet the scale of authoritarian intervention and its stealth design adds to the growing difficulty of linking cause and effect. By bluntly showing the designs, Handbook of Tyranny gives a profound insight into the relationship between political power, territoriality and systematic cruelties.
Theo Deutinger is an architect, writer and designer of sociocultural maps. He has regular lecture and teaching engagements with various institutions, including Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Strelka Institute Moscow and the Bauhaus in Dessau.
