How to Secure a Country: From Border Policing via Weather Forecast to Social Engineering-a Visual Study of 21st Century Statehood

An artist's diagrammatic dissection of the national security culture that has swept the West

In this hybrid artist's book, Switzerland-based artist Salvatore Vitale (born 1986) explores Switzerland's national security measures by focusing instructions, protocols and bureaucracies pertaining to security, which he visualizes in photographs, diagrams and graphic illustrations.

Switzerland, well known as one of the safest countries on earth and a prime example of efficiency and efficacy, has developed a culture based on protection, supported by the presence and production of national security. When in 2014 the Swiss voted in favor of an initiative "against massive immigration," Vitale, an immigrant living in Switzerland, decided to research this phenomenon in order to comprehend the origin for this constant need for security and how it became part of Swiss culture. The result is a case study that can be used to explain the global context for notions of security and the functioning of contemporary societies.