Category: Paper bullets

1942 U.S. War Production Board stickers

People typically picture various left- and right-wing socio-political groups using stickers to convey their messages, but governments have also produced stickers as propaganda to promote their agendas (sometimes known as “paper bullets,” “paper leaflets,” or, if dropped from planes in the sky, “confetti soldiers”). A batch of U.S. government stickers was sent to me recently that I learned were made by the War Production Board (WPB) in 1942 during World War II after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in an effort to shore up manufacturing. The Library of Congress has several examples here, here, here, here, and here, stating “The…

“Paper Bullets – the expanded version” at Neurotitan Gallery in Berlin, Germany

In the summer of 2019, I was given the opportunity to present an expanded version of my Paper Bullets exhibition at the acclaimed Neurotitan Gallery in Berlin, Germany. Oliver Baudach, the director of Hatch Kingdom Sticker Museum, was the driving force that made the project possible. It was an enormous undertaking, in that for the first time I drew from my entire collection of thousands of new, unused, historical and contemporary political stickers from around the world. Neurotitan is a non-commercial, alternative art gallery that features urban art. Housed in the Haus Schwarzenberg in Mitte, the gallery dates back to…

876 framed stickers in “Paper Bullets” exhibition

German Spuckies 1980s: 18 U.S. Industrial Workers of the World Labor Union 1910s-1930s: 12 Misc. U.S. Politicians: 38 U.S. President Richard Nixon: 17 U.S. President George W. Bush: 18 U.S. World War II: 27 Arab Spring / Religion: 18 Ukraine / Maidan Protests: 12 Russia: 7 Falange Spanish Right-Wing Movement Anthem: 13 Mixed Themes: 45 U.S. War in Vietnam: 32 Race: 15 Immigration / Borders: 28 Environment: 42 Spain / Catalonian Separatist Movement: 51 German Political Parties: 67 Surveillance: 24 St. Pauli Football Club: 47 Die Linke German Political Party: 23 U.S. Gender 1980s: 43 Gender / Sexuality: 63 Capitalism…

Paper leaflets today

In an article North Korea Warns South Over Leaflets, the NY Times reported last week, “North Korea opened fire on Friday after anti-Pyongyang activists in the South sent large balloons sailing across the border with leaflets criticizing the North’s government…. In a commentary published on Saturday [October 11, 2014], the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said that the leaflets were ‘an intolerable political provocation’ and ‘psychological warfare,’ and that Seoul and Washington were behind them, according to the South Korean news agency Yonhap.” Check out earlier posts about my Paper Bullets sticker exhibition in Berlin and to see an…

Paper Bullets – an example

In conjunction with the Paper Bullets exhibition that’s on display right now at Hatch Kingdom, I included an example of an actual paper bullet to show people what they look like (see lower right). This “confetti soldier” was probably dropped from the sky by U.S. military forces during the Gulf War in 1991. My colleague at SLU, Gisele El Khoury, helped again with the Arabic translations.  Here is the front. تحذير! هذه البداية فقط! فعسى أن تكون هذه قنبلة حقيقية نرغب في المحافظة على الأناس الأبرياء وصدام يقودهم في طريق الدمار والموت المحتوم. نريدعإغلامهم بالحقيقة! صدام هو السبب نعم، إن…