On Ne Matraque Pas L’Imagination. Cakes & Ale Press, 2012.

Hannah, Jonny. On Ne Matraque Pas L’Imagination. Cakes & Ale Press, 2012. Large original signed screenprint and letterpress by Jonny Hannah, measuring 63.4 × 48 cm, issued in a limited edition of only 50 impressions, this example number 22/50, signed by the artist and carrying the numbered edition device and Cakes & Ale Press imprint in the left-hand margin. Printed in a deliberately restricted palette of warm yellow-ochre and red on pale paper, the composition combines a loosely drawn bicycle-like mechanical form with the emphatic French wording “ON NE MATRAQUE PAS L’IMAGINATION!”, the word imagination dramatically divided across two lines and punctuated by a large red exclamation mark within the lower wheel. The phrase is associated with the celebrated political and poetic slogans of Paris in May 1968 and can be rendered approximately as “You cannot beat imagination with a truncheon”, matraque referring to a police club or truncheon; it encapsulates the period’s opposition of creative freedom and imagination to physical and institutional repression. Hannah does not reproduce a historic May ’68 poster but reinterprets its visual culture through the language of hand printing, restricted colour and forceful typography. The combination of screenprinting and letterpress is especially appropriate, allowing freely drawn imagery to interact with the physical, poster-like authority of relief-printed type, and demonstrates Hannah’s characteristic ability to make lettering function simultaneously as language and image. Dating from 2012, the work is a particularly strong example of his engagement with vernacular graphics and historical printed ephemera. Very good to excellent condition overall, with strong red and yellow printing, light natural paper undulation and only minor handling consistent with an unframed handmade print; the signature, edition number 22/50 and Cakes & Ale Press imprint remain clear.…