BOOK REVIEW

Gniezno Poster Meetings 3: Finland,
Finnish poster 1968-1998 from the collection of the National Museum in Poznan; Catalogue of an exhibition at the Museum of the Origins of the Polish State, Gniezno, Poland(1998), curated by Irena Przymus; available from Muzeum Poczatkow Panstwa Polskiego, ul. J. Kostrzewskiego 1, PL-62-200 Gniezno, tel (+48 61) 426-46-41, fax 426-48-41
44 pages, 59 color and 12 b/w illustrations, 29 x 21 cm, softcover; ISBN 83-906800-3-3; 20 Zloty (about 6 US$); in polish, finnish and english

Gniezno is a small, but historically important polish town about halfway between Warsaw and Berlin, that has now joined the ranks of Chaumont, Echirolles or Grugliasco in having a yearly poster festival. The theme of its third "Gnieznienskie Spotkania z Plakatem" was Finland, after Poland in 1995 and France in 1996, and the exhibition of modern finnish posters is running from November 1998 to March 1999.

The catalogue with texts by Zdzislaw Schubert and Ulla Artoma, the curators of the poster collections in Poznan and Lahti, respectively, is one of the most detailed sources on contemporary finnish posters currently available. It has ample literature references on each(!) of the 207 posters, and 31 artist biographies, and reflects the advanced state of the computerized inventory of the Poznan poster collection. It is also a testimony to longstanding personal friendships and sympathy between the two great poster countries that have eased the hardships of Poland's cold war isolation.

70th Anniversary of Finland's Independence 1987 Esa Ojala

1975 - 1990 Poster Museum Lahti 1990 Kari Piippo

Lahti X Poster Biennale 1993 Tapani Aartomaa

An indispensible reference work on finnish posters!