A01=Nicholas Saunders
American Civil War
Ape Man
Archaeological Nature
Australian War Memorial
Author_Nicholas Saunders
AWM
Battlefield Pilgrims
battlefield souvenirs
Bullet Cartridges
Category La
Category=AGP
Category=FJM
Category=JHM
Category=NHD
commemorative artefacts
conflict archaeology
eq_art-fashion-photography
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
Erich Von Falkenhayn
Flanders Fields Museum
gas attacks
Grand Lodge
Historial De La Grande Guerre
Home Town
Imperial War Graves Commission
Khorassan Province
Matchbox Covers
material culture studies
materiality of war remembrance
Menin Gate
NATO Issue
night raids
postwar materiality
Royal Air Force Museum
Royal Army Museum
Scrap Brass
Serpent Column
Shell Case
Swagger Sticks
trench art
war memory objects
Young Men
Product details
- ISBN 9781859736081
- Weight: 420g
- Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 01 Aug 2003
- Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
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Trench art is the evocative name given to a dazzling array of objects made from the waste of industrialized war. Each object, whether an engraved shell case, cigarette lighter or a pen made from shrapnel, tells a unique and moving story about its maker. For the first time, this book explores in-depth the history and cultural importance behind these ambiguous art forms. Not only do they symbolize human responses to the atrocities of war, but they also act as mediators between soldiers and civilians, individuals and industrial society, and, most importantly, between the living and the dead. Trench art resonates most obviously with the terror of endless bombardment, night raids, gas attacks and the bestial nature of trench life. It grew in popularity between 1919 and 1939 when the bereaved embarked on battlefield pilgrimages and returned with objects intended to keep alive the memory of loved ones. The term trench art is, however, misleading, as it does not simply refer to materials found in the trenches. It describes a diverse range of objects that have in some way emerged from the experience of war all over the world. Many distinctive objects, for example, were made during conflicts in Bosnia, Vietnam, Northern Ireland and Korea. Surprisingly, trench art predates World War I and it can be made in a number of earlier wars such as the Crimean War, the American Civil War, and the Boer War. Saunders looks at the broader issues of what is meant by trench art, what it was before the trenches and how it fits in with other art movements, as well as the specific materials used in making it. He suggests that it can be seen as a bridge between the nineteenth century certainties and the fragmented industrialized values and ideals of the modern world. This long overdue study offers an original and informative look at one of the most arresting forms of art. Spanning from 1800 to the present day, its analysis of art, human experience, and warfare will pave the way for new research.
Nicholas J. Saunders is Lecturer in Material Culture at University College London, and a Senior Research Fellow at the British Academy.
