Graffiti: Two Thousand
Years of Wall Writing

1971. Robert Reisner

This book examines the work of the earliest graffitists, who lived in caves, down through the latest bathroom comment to be seen in swinging singles bars. Long despised by establishment scholars as the mere scribblings of mental defectives, graffiti are shown by Robert Reisner to have important historical, socialogical, and psychological meaning.

Available at Amazon (paid link)

1970s Special Report:
NYC Graffiti

1972

Mid 70s NYC Graffiti:
Cliff 159 3YB

mid 1970s

The Faith of Graffiti

1974, 2009
Jon Naar, Norman Mailer

The Faith of Graffiti is the classic, definitive look at the birth of graffiti as an art form, pairing the fascinating 1974 essay by Norman Mailer—National Book Award and two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Naked and the Dead and The Executioner’s Song—with the stunning, iconic photography of internationally acclaimed photographer Jon Naar. Back in print for the first time in three decades and expanded with 32 pages of additional photos, The Faith of Graffiti is a landmark in the history of street art: an essential, contemporary, and still-relevant meditation, in words and pictures, on the meaning of identity, property, and city life.

Available at Amazon (paid link)

Street Writers

1975, 2020
Gusmano Cesaretti

Cesaretti, an Italian, came to LA in 1975 with a camera and became infatuated with the graffiti he found there. He had been familiar with it elsewhere, but had never encountered anything like Chicano graffiti, with it’s precise lines, oddly shaped lettering and elongated script. While pursuing photographing the graffitis he met Chaz Bojorquez who gave him a guided tour of LAs best Chicano, where Cesaretti started to understand the art form more deeply in documenting this work and community.

Available at StreetWriters.com

Watching My Name Go By

1976 film
BBC produced

Before The Faith of Graffiti was published the original title was slated to be Watching My Name Go By. Two years after the release of The Faith of Graffiti, the BBC aired a short 25-minute documentary under the original title. It had some amazing footage of trains and walls of the early days of graffiti in NYC, with interviews of dozens of writers, including a 17 year old Don One.

Graffiti A New York

1978, 2012
Andrea Nelli

In 1973, graffiti ran rampant in NYC, reaching its peak that summer. The work of black writers from the Bronx like SUPER COOL 223, RIFF 70 (WORM/CASH), and PHASE 2 defined the art which the kids called Top-to- Bottom or T-to-B, as it vertically covered a full subway car. Some T-to-B pieces were so elaborate and complex that the NYT hypothesized that they were a collaboration between
professional artists and the graffiti writers. Here are photos from that heady era.

Available at Amazon (paid link)

Encyclopedia of Graffiti

1980. Robert Reisner and Loraine Wechsler

Available at Amazon (paid link)

Stations of The Elevated

1981, Directed by Manfred Kirchheimer

An Artists Public Domain/Cinema Conservancy Release, in association with agnes b., of a Streetwise Films Production

Available to stream (buy or rent) in higher quality at YouTube

Wild Style

1982
Directed by Charlie Aheran

Universally hailed as the first hip-hop movie, Wild Style captures New York's 1981 hip-hop culture and several prominent figures including Busy Bee Starski, Fab Five Freddy, The Cold Crush Brothers, and one of the godfathers of hip-hop, Grandmaster Flash.

Available at Amazon (paid link) in streaming and DVD Formats

Style Wars

1983
Directed by Tony Silver

"Anybody who wants to understand what hip hop is all about needs to see a movie called Style Wars."
-KRS-One

When director Tony Silver and co-producer Henry Chalfant delivered the broadcast version of their prize-winning film to PBS in 1983, the world received its first full immersion in the phenomenon that had taken over New York City. The urban landscape was physically transformed by graffiti artists who invented a new visual language to express both their individuality, and the voice of their community. In STYLE WARS, New York's ramshackle subway system is their public playground, battleground, and spectacular artistic canvas. As MC's, DJ's and B-boys rock the city with new sounds and new moves, we see street corner breakdance battles turn into performance art.

Available at Amazon (paid link) in streaming and DVD Formats

Lady Pink Interview

Subway Art

1984, 2016
Henry Chalfant & Martha Cooper

In 1984 the groundbreaking Subway Art brought graffiti to the world, presenting stunning photographic documentation of the burgeoning movement in New York. Thirty years later, this bible of street art has been updated with over seventy photographs not included in the original edition and new insights on an incredibly rich period for urban art and its legacy.

In new introductions, authors Martha Cooper and Henry Chalfant recall how they gained entry into the New York City graffiti community in the 1970s and 1980s. New afterwords continue the story, tracing the decline of the subway and graffiti scene in the late 1980s to its unexpected rebirth as a global art movement. The authors reveal how the lives of the original subway artists have unfolded and mourn the loss of several to the darker forces of the street. 153 color illustrations

Available at Amazon (paid link)

Greetings From New York

1983

Getting Up:
Subway Graffiti in New York

1984
Craig Castleman

"Getting Up" is the term used by graffiti "artists" to describe their success in making their mark on the New York subway system. Through candid interviews, New Yorker Craig Castleman documents the inside story of the lives and activities of these young graffitists.

Available at Amazon (paid link)

Beat This: Hip Hop History

1984

A scene from Beat This: Hip Hop History. New York graffiti artist Brim and the MTA vandal squad about graffiti.

1980s NYC Subway Graffiti

Futura 2000

Futura 2000 with Mick Jones

Style: Writing From
The Underground

1996
Phase 2

Text in both English and Italian. This book is a treasure that is hard to find these days.

Writing is the practice of painting your pseudonym with spray paint on walls, on train and subway cars and on all accessible surfaces. Born in New York 25 years ago, this phenomenon has spread rapidly throughout the Western world and for some years has also spread to Italy. But painting unauthorized on the property of others is considered a crime by the authorities, so writing has become an illegal practice. The book reveals to the lovers and the curious the motivations, the commitment, the creativity, the energy that made possible its birth and subsequently its development and evolution up to the present day and in our cities.

Available at Amazon (paid link)

Graffito

1996. Michael Walsh

The graffiti phenomenon taking place in urban America has erupted into a full scale war. The main weapons: aerosol spray paint versus hundreds of taxpayer-funded abatements programs. To the graffiti writer, graffiti is a secret language, an empowering form of self-expression, a screaming voice against an unjust, alienating society. To the upholders of social law and order, graffiti is "vandalism," an ugly and terrifying threat to social value, which cost U.S. taxpayers four billion dollars in 1995.

For two years, beginning in the fall of 1994, Michael Walsh immersed himself in the graffiti world of the San Francisco Bay Area. He took thousands of photographs, frequented train yards, went on all-night "bombing runs" with graffiti writers, prowled the Muni train tunnels at 3a.m., rode with graffiti abatement crews, spoke with small business owners who are frequent targets of graffiti, and tracked down key city officials and personnel directly involved with graffiti removal.

This powerful book delivers a raw, in-your-face account of this complex and controversial subject. It contains nearly 200 photographs, and quotes from over fifty interviews regarding both sides of the issue, and dispels many of the media-generated myths concerning graffiti. In this moving, articulate, visual account, Michael Walsh presents to us an urban phenomenon begging to be understood.

Available at Amazon (paid link)

The Art of Getting Over

1999. Stephen Powers

What started as simple street movement, a way to assert individuality and pride, has blossomed into much more: Graffiti is everywhere. From Sprite commercials to The Source magazine to Soho art galleries, the elements and vernacular of the graffiti aesthetic are apparent in today's society. This book examines graffiti's influence from its earliest days to its undeniable ubiquity now. Written by an insider, it includes a general history, in-depth interviews with both the progenitors of the form and current artists, and full-color illustrations of the most important works over the last 30 years. Unlike other subcultures that have been corrupted by the media and the mainstream, graffiti has maintained its sense of the underground and its clandestine feel. The purity and integrity that have defined the graffiti writer's mission have never faltered. The Art of Getting Over offers an unprecedented glimpse into this deeply affecting urban art form.

Available at Amazon (paid link)

Street Market

2000. Barry McGee, Stephen Powers, Todd James

Japanese Edition Book commemorating the seminal Street Market show at Deitch Projects in NYC. The same show toured several art institutions world world wide and the video below is from Street Market 2, MOCA as part of Art in The Streets exhibit 2011

Available at Amazon (paid link)

Indelible Market

2000. Barry McGee, Stephen Powers, Todd James

Catalog published on the occasion of “Wall Power,” May 13 - July 2000, Philadelphia, PA. Institute of Contemporary Art

Extremely limited. Good luck finding this one.

Mass Appeal:
5 Borough Graff Editions

1999-2001

Still need the Queens and Staten Island issues to round out the Handselecta library.

Good luck finding these on ebay.

Dondi White:
Style Master General

2001. Andrew Mitten & Michael White

Dondi White: Style Master General presents the life and work of a seminal -- yet heretofore overlooked -- American artist whose work has resonated on every level of our popular culture. Filled with rare photographs, original sketches, unpublished interview materials, and testimony from some of Dondi's closest cohorts, here, finally, is the full story. At the time of his death in 1998, Dondi had seen the majority of his work destroyed -- scraped off, painted over, or chemically removed from the steel upon which it thrived. Within these pages, however, it still speaks volumes.

Available at Amazon (paid link)

Aerosol Kingdom

2002. Ivor Miller

Hailed as the seminal study of spray can art of the 1970s and 1980s, Aerosol Kingdom explores the origins and aesthetics of graffiti writings.

From a vast array of inherited traditions and gritty urban lifestyles, talented and renegade young New Yorkers spawned a culture of their own, a balloon-lettered shout heralding the coming of hip-hop. Though helpless in checking its spreading appeal, city fathers immediately went on the attack and denounced it as vandalism. Many aficionados, however, recognized its trendy aesthetic immediately. By the 1980s, spray-paint art hit the mainstream, and subway painters, mostly from marginal barrios of the city, became art world darlings. Their proliferating, ephemeral art was spotlighted in downtown galleries, in the media, and thereafter throughout the land. Not only did the practice of “public signaturing” take over New York City, but also, as the images moved through the neighborhoods on the subway cars, it also grabbed hold in the suburbs. Soon it stirred worldwide imitation and helped spark the hip-hop revolution.

As the artists wielded their spray cans, they expressed their acute social consciousness. Aerosol Kingdom documents their careers and records the reflections of key figures in the movement. It examines converging forces that made aerosol art possible―the immigration of Caribbean peoples, the reinforcing presence of black American working-class styles and fashions, the effects of advertising on children, the mass marketing of spray cans, and the popular protests of the 1960s and 1970s against racism, sexism, classism, and war.

The creative period of the movement lasted for over twenty years, but most of the original works have vanished. Official cleanup of public sites erased great pieces of the heyday. They exist now only in photographs, in the artists' sketchbooks, and in Aerosol Kingdom.

Available at Amazon (paid link)

Writing: Urban Calligraphy and Beyond

2003. Markus Mai & Arthur Remke

Long ignored and belittled for its proximity to comic culture and vandalism, graffiti has steadfastly remained in the public view: ubiquitous and with a natural affinity to architecture it has become a fundamental aspect of the modern city, influencing public perception and borrowed by fashion, packaging, graphic designers and architects alike. An offspring of this graffiti scene, born out of tags and throw-ups, writing is modern urban calligraphy. While the classic New York style of writing originated in typography, it in turn has left its mark on virtually all visual disciplines: strictly speaking the arrangement of space by outlines, writing has become an invaluable influence and inspiration, especially in the realm of illustration, logo design, motion graphics and architecture. Complemented by a number of essays, "Writing" (compiled by Berlin activists and designers Markus Mai and Arthur Remke) now surveys this appropriation of public space and examines the detailed fusion of analogue writing and digital design. Divided by contributors the content spans from straight documentation of this low tech conspiracy to extremely intricate architectural exercises, integrating the unique spatial properties of graffiti writing, its shapes, forms and angles, into three-dimensional objects or buildings.

Available at Amazon (paid link)

Novurkistan

2003. Loucious Broadway

File under literature? Memoir? Fantasy? Poetry? All of the above?

Available at Amazon (paid link)

Giant: Manifestations

2004. Mike Giant

Mike Giant has achieved fame as a graffiti artist, illustrator and tattooist. Black ink is GIANT s specialty and whether his medium is concrete, paper or skin his signature style - made up of equal parts Mexican folk art and Japanese illustration - is unmistakable. This book is GIANT s first monograph and it features beautifully executed drawings on paper, full scale wall art and impeccably photographed tattoos. This new revised edition from 2007 adds another 16 pages of Tattoo work.
A distinctive, cloth-bound hardcover volume GIANT is a must have reference book for all those interested in exploring the possibilities of heavy ink!

Available at Amazon (paid link)

Fuzz One: A Bronx Childhood

2005. Vincent Fedorchak

Graffiti memoir that reads like a Huck Finn of the 70s

Available at Amazon (paid link)

Also Known As v1

2005. AKA / 12oz Prophet

Also Known As is a 190-page, full-color, perfect-bound, graffiti-obsessed, street culture bible. The focus is nothing short of dear, dirty destruction; the glorious variety of fuck-you graffiti that offers no attempt to make friends. Absolutely every page is pure unadulterated content, without room for advertisements or nonsense.

Each copy of Also Known As Volume 1 is individually numbered and comes with a kiss-cut sticker sheet, two special fold-out posters, vinyl stickers and more. All of this results in the most elegantly filthy graffiti and street culture publication that still maintains as the gold standard for graffiti publications.

Featuring: Futura, Kaws, Todd James aka Reas, Crude Oil, Ket, KR, Desa, Cope2, Jee, Ovie, Ghost, Miss17, 323, Skrew, PJay, Skuf, Jest, Earsnot, Seph, Zeus, Veefer, Cap, Os Gemeos, Dero, Noah, Virus, Rebel, Ces, Giant, Merz, Dalek, Crae, Hope, Dash Snow, Miguel Diaz de Lopez, Peter Sutherland, Raven, Demo, Presscott McDonald, Adorn, Peter Rentz, Evan Hecox, jeffstaple, John Duda, Steve Harrington, Kimou Meyer, Max Vogel, Ryan Waller, Harsh Patel, Marco Cibola, Noah Butkus, Pete Christofferson, Dan Funderburgh, Pres Rodriguez, Struggle Inc. & many more.

Also Known As v2.5

2006. AKA / 12oz Prophet

12ozProphet has lurked in plain sight for far too long. Now the crew is back. After years of brand consultancy and creative services for big names and high rollers, we’ve returned to stir shit up for the common good. We’re back because street culture is polluted and we again find [real] graffiti’s legacy in danger. Join us as we bring a misrepresented movement back home, and showcase some of the players and pieces that made it what it was. Featuring the very best in graffiti, art and culture from the crew that brought you the Also Known As Volume 1 and 1.5 books, KR – It’s All In My Head and Million Dollar Vandal.

Spotlights: Barry McGee, Os Gemeos, Todd James, Jeremy Dean (WOBF), Sacer IRAK, Desa, Crude Oiler, Coyo, Finok, SPone, Ket, Veefer and more.

Million Dollar Vandal

2006. DESA, AKA / 12oz Prophet

Million Dollar Vandal is the story of one of New York City’s most reviled citizens, a graffiti writer named Robert Morrissey. As Desa, the moniker that brought him the hate, Morrissey was infamous. Though there were graffiti writers who have done more damage, few matched Desa when it came to the wrath of the Vandal Squad. Million Dollar Vandal chronicles the story of Desa’s violent and tragic life, from his Bushwick childhood through to the present day with every bit of it punctuated with the graffiti that has brought him fame and a world of trouble.

Produced, published and distributed by 12ozProphet, Million Dollar Vandal is a 192 page, full color and hardcover book dedicated to the legacy of Desa and the troubled life of Robert Morrissey. Featuring magnificent photography and print production, Million Dollar Vandal displays to the world a rarely seen look at the underbelly of New York City graffiti culture.

KR - It’s All In My Head

2006. KR, AKA / 12oz Prophet

There are few artists that embody the intersection of street art and graffiti like KR. As a writer, his roots are firmly planted in vandalism, having spent years covering the streets of New York and San Francisco with tags, throw ups and rollers. But as an artist, he approached the game a little differently and began to blur the lines.

Edited, published and distributed globally by 12ozProphet, KR: All in my Head captures is visual diary; experiences that inspire KR and the art he produces, both legally and illegally. Curated and designed by KR, It’s All in My Head is a look directly into the mind of an artist, placing you alongside KR as it all goes down.

The Nasty Terrible T-Kid 170

2006. Julius Cavero

The Nasty Terrible T-KID 170 is the autobiography of graffiti writer Julius Cavero aka T-KID 170. This autobiography chronicles the life of a gang member, turned graffiti artist and style mentor for urban youth an uncensored Bronx Hip Hop story. During a gang shoot-out in a local park, Julius Cavero suffered three shots to the leg, one nearly severing his major artery, left for dead by gang rivals and so-called comrades. T-Kid survived the ordeal only to come face-to-face with 3 weeks of intensive surgical procedures. In those three weeks, Julius Cavero sketched, endlessly. It was then that he chose to become T-KID 170 T for the tall and skinny look he had, and KID just because that s what so many people called him. At that moment, Julius Cavero gave up gang life for a new vocation. T-Kid would now focus on art, specifically street art: GRAFFITTI. The Nasty Terrible T-KID 170 retraces his life from the early 1960s to 2005 through his written accounts and artwork, including images of painted trains, walls, canvases, drawings, and sketches produced over the last thirty years. Few artists today can tell a tale like T-KID s a ghetto childhood, gangbanging, and daring feats of graffiti. Many who lived in such times either left their lives or their art behind. T-KID, who won fame early on, lives to tell the tale and withstood the test of time.

Available at Amazon (paid link)

Infamy

2006 Documentary Film. Directed by Doug Pray

Produced by: Grant Cihlar, Kevin Lewis, Nancy Cihlar, Quincy Jones III, Roger Gastman

Contributors include: Claw, Miss 17, Toomer, Earsnot, Jase, Joe Connolly, Saber, Claw, NM and more.

Available at Amazon (paid link) in streaming and DVD Formats

Mascots & Mugs: The Characters and Cartoons
of Subway Graffiti

2007. David Chino Villorente, Todd Reas James
& Jonathan Lethem

In the graffiti world it's the name that brings the fame, but what about the figural components of this urban typography? Some of the most iconic pieces in the history of graffiti have earned their place in the street art pantheon with the help of masterfully rendered figures that lend additional presence to these works. Mascots & Mugs, brought to you by the publisher of the best-selling sneaker encyclopedia Where'd You Get Those? is the first book to examine figurative elements in graffiti art: It traces the history of key characters from the earliest examples by writers such as Stay High, Cliff 170 and Blade, to those of later masters like Mode 2, Doze and Tack. Drawing inspiration from Saturday-morning television, printed comic strips and the dense urban landscape itself, graffiti writers created characters free from the constraints of their usual letterforms. The result is a host of outlandish visual sidekicks that, over time, have become so prevalent that any would-be king needs at least a few in his artistic arsenal. Filled with never-before-published photographs and rare artist interviews, this chronologically sequenced graffiti bible is a must-have reference work for anyone interested in cartoons, comics, graphic design or the myriad ways in which this self-taught urban street art has influenced today's contemporary art landscape. Also available in a deluxe, clothbound, slipcased limited edition with a signed screenprint of a classic "mug" from graffiti legend Doc TC5.

Available at Amazon (paid link)

Philly Journalist:
Robert Moran

2008. Robert Moran

Clips and interviews journalist Robert Moran conducted for the movie Sly Artistic City (2010) which can be found below in full.

Vandal Squad

2008. Joseph Rivera

Founded in 1980, the Vandal Squad's mission was to protect the subway system from hardcore criminal acts of destruction like kicking out windows and throwing seats out of train cars. It was only with the Clean Car Program of 1984 that graffiti became the primary focus of this specialized Unit. On a mission to catch those who gained fame under tag names, the Vandal Squad had to identify and locate these individuals cloaked in anonymity (and often so transient they were referred as "ghosts") using every means available, including the NYPD computer database, Search Warrants, subpoenas, and even vandals themselves.

In Vandal Squad: Inside the New York City Transit Police Department, 1984-2004, former member Officer Joseph Rivera recounts the days and nights spent in pursuit of some of New York City's most notorious vandals. The only book on graffiti told from the perspective of law enforcement, Vandal Squad takes us inside the New York Police Department. Rivera's fast-paced tales of cat and mouse are presented alongside professional disregard within the Department. Featuring never-before-seen photographs and stories of graffiti's infamous Top 40, Vandal Squad offers an unprecedented look at the graffiti world from the other side of the game.

Available at Amazon (paid link)

Piecebook

2008. Sacha Jenkins & David Chino Villorente

This living history of the graffiti movement reproduces selections from the actual black books that graffiti artists use to perfect and share their work. Before it hits the wall, graffiti is often planned out in a black book - a common artist’s sketchbook sometimes called a “piece book” – “piece” being short for “masterpiece.” Well-worn and dog-eared, these books are used to develop and trade ideas with other graffiti writers, and they may end up being passed along from artist to artist, becoming unique records of creative expression. “Piecebook: The Secret Drawings of Graffiti Writers” chronicles the evolution of graffiti via images that weren’t intended for everyday people to see, focusing on the works of Germany City writers active from 1970s until the mid-1980s. Bold works from graffiti history’s most important sources or “seeds” - Zephyr, Dondi, Daze, CRASH, Lady Pink, T-Kid, CAP, and Ghost, among others - represent a dizzying array of techniques and styles.

Available at Amazon (paid link)

Nov York

2008. Dumar Brown

File under literature? Memoir? Fantasy? Poetry? All of the above?

Available at Amazon (paid link)

The World Screaming Nov

2008. Dumar Brown

Mokie G, working as a teacher for prisoners in NYC, dreams of a revolution where his students get a second chance at working towards a better future. Mokie G convinces his students, and ultimately the world, through the use of a mantra with an incredible philosophy- NOV. Whether poking fun at all religious text and doctrine since the beginning of time or inventing the newest one in order to free the oppressed, the issues raised by this book will bother you because it's such a dope book and you didn't write it (in high school you was the man homey, what the hell happened to you?)

Available at Amazon (paid link)

Graffiti Kings: New York City Mass Transit Art of the 1970s

2009. Jack Stewart

Graffiti Kings is the definitive book on New York's subway graffiti movement, an unprecedented creative explosion that occurred across the five boroughs during the 1970s. This rare, firsthand account of the birth of this movement is the first and only graffiti book to reveal what happened behind the scenes when writers put their lives on the line to grab a piece of fame from a faceless urban landscape.

Through personal interviews and over 275 full-color, previously unpublished photographs, the colorful origins of subway graffiti are brought to life. Legends such as Taki 183, Blade 1, Phase 2, and Co-Co 144, as well as the city officials who saw the writers as public menaces and their art as vandalism, give accounts of everyday struggles, each full of new advancements, excitement, and risk. Although author and photographer Jack Stewart maintained a low profile at the time, his work is now a graffiti-world legend: rumored to exist, seldom seen, a near-equivalent to the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Alongside archival photographs of everything from vibrant bubble-letter and 3-D pieces to the Holy Grail, the whole-train pieces, are maps, images, and ephemera that help fill out the complete story. A celebration in words and pictures of graffiti's golden age, Graffiti Kings is a book sure to be coveted by those fascinated and inspired by this uniquely American urban art form.

Available at Amazon (paid link)

Piecebook Reloaded: Rare Graffiti Drawings,
1985 - 2005

2009. Sacha Jenkins & David Chino Villorente

Like its critically celebrated predecessor, Piecebook Reloaded mimics the actual sketchbooks graffiti artists have drawn in and passed around for years. Featuring more than fifty renowned artists, including Reas, Doc TC5, Veefer, Revolt, Pure, Abby, Ces, Part, Ket, Cope 2, and more, Piecebook Reloaded tells the tale of graffiti’s evolution, from adrenalin-fueled street game to acceptance into the gallery world and corporate appropriation. From the mid-1980s through the first decade of the new century, distinctive styles pioneered by generations past took different shapes as new kids stepped up with spray cans in hand, taking what their "forebombers" created to heights never imagined. With paper stock identical to that of actual sketchbooks, as well as blank pages for readers to add their own masterpieces to the mix, Piecebook Reloaded delivers the same creative intimacy and honesty that fans of the art found in the first Piecebook’s pages.

Available at Amazon (paid link)

The History of
American Graffiti

2010. Roger Gastman & Caleb Neelon

Unprecedented in scope, The History of American Graffiti is the definitive story behind the most influential art form of the last one hundred years. Tracing the evolution of the medium from its early freight-train days to its big-city boom on the streets of New York City and Philadelphia, and to its modern-day influences, this volume is a compelling look at the key moments, places, and players in an art form distinctly American in flavor yet global in its reach.

Featuring behind-the-scenes stories and profiles gleaned from more than four years' worth of interviews with graffiti's most prominent names, as well as its lesser-known pioneers, authors Roger Gastman and Caleb Neelon provide an insider's perspective on the history of the medium. Not only do they reveal the most popular trends and styles that have dominated the scene for the last fifty years but they also provide a thorough examination of the regional differences among major American hubs—New York, Los Angeles, the Bay Area, Chicago—and under-the-radar scenes in cities like Washington, D.C., Boston, and Miami. All told, more than twenty-five American cities are profiled, making this one of the most comprehensive volumes on the subject.

With more than one thousand photographs—the majority of which are seen here for the first time—from more than two hundred photographers, most of whom also created the artwork, The History of American Graffiti captures the look and feel of a genuine American art form with exceptional clarity and detail. An instant classic, this book is the ultimate resource to which aficionados of the art form will turn again and again, and which the uninitiated will regard as the definitive tutorial of all that is graffiti.

Available at Amazon (paid link)

Stay High 149

2010. Sky Farrell, Chris Pape, Jon Naar & Wayne Roberts

Monograph and biography of Stay High 149

Available at Amazon (paid link)

The Art and Life of
Chaz Bojorquez

2010. Curated by Marco Klefisch & Alberto Scabbia

This monograph charts the life and career of Chaz Bojorquez, known as “Chaz,” a Los Angeles-born Mexican-American artist who began in the “Cholo” gang graffiti tradition but quickly arrived at his own groundbreaking style. This book includes previously unreleased photographs and traces the artist's story in fascinating detail.

Available at Amazon (paid link)

Rockin’ It Suckers

2010, 2020. Alain Ket Mariduena & Cousin Frank

New York in the late 80s: A city tormented by crack and violent crime. At the same time the golden age of hip hop was in full bloom, and despite the violence some found room for creativity.

At this time a group of kids got together to taste the last of the city's painted subway trains, just in time to experience a new era in New York's graffiti history ― The authorities decided to clean up the city and a zero-tolerance policy towards graffiti was instituted. While many of the city's graffiti writers quit, the RIS crew was determined to keep the trains colourful and decided to wage their own war with the city. As a result, they took over New York with style, and along the way influenced graffiti writers long way outside the five boroughs.

The crack down from the authorities didn't only trigger the RIS crew to write more, it also made them come up with faster techniques and develop their styles, all done with the crews' characteristic arrogance and humorous touch. Soon they became one of the world's most important and influential graffiti crews.

ROCKIN' IT SUCKERS feature never before seen images of graffiti by the leading figures in the crew as they share their thoughts on bombing, vandalizing and rocking the city.

Essays by: Duel, Fuzz One, Ghost, Ket, and Noxer.

Features the work of Bruz, Det, Ghost, JA One, Reas, Sane, Smith, Veefer and many more.

Rockin' it Suckers 10th Anniversary Edition is the first publication in collaboration between Dokument Press and the Museum of Graffiti.

Available at Amazon (paid link)

From The Platform:
Subway Graffiti, 1983-1989

2011. Paul Cavalieri

See the New York City transit system at a time the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) has tried hard to forget. In the early '80s, graffiti writer Paul Cavalieri, who writes "CAVS," was drawn to the colorful tags on trains. He started learning train schedules so he could snap works by many writers of the time. This is a compilation of subway graffiti from 1983 to 1989, when the MTA announced that its fleet was entirely graffiti-free. More than 325 color photos capture everything from motion-bombed train interiors riddled with pilot marker tags to epic works covering whole exteriors, top to bottom. Artists tell their tales of adventure throughout and reminisce about working on live third rails, navigating the complex subway system to find their works, and witnessing graffiti's gradual disappearance from the trains. This book presents a nostalgic look at 1980s New York City and the street artists that gave it soul.

Available at Amazon (paid link)

Letters To Live By:
Mr Big Sleeps

2013

Grifters Code:
Ep 1 - Peach ALTGR PAL

2013

In the first of the now infamous GRIFTERS CODE series, we follow Peach ALTGR PAL through the streets and systems of Paris, France. With a nonchalant flair and surreal confidence, we get to witness Peach's wide array of styles and techniques being utilized on a whole range of surfaces, in both the middle of the day and the middle of the night. But as this is a video from The Grifters, there is always room for a bit of comic relief. Who will become King of the Pizza?!

Don 1: The King From Queens: The Life and Photos of a NYC Transit Graffiti Master

2014. Louis Gasparrao

Among the famous graffiti artists from New York City's 1970s subway era was an unassuming talent from the unassuming borough of Queens. The Italian-American rock and roller who wrote "DON 1 MAFIA" blasted onto the scene like a meteorite out of nowhere. His influence on this art form transcended the inner city and he became a legend and a household name. But his descent from the top of this name game, a result of the hedonistic lifestyle of New York City at the time, was just as swift, and for years DON1 has lived in obscurity. Fortunately, as a photographer studying at the prestigious school of Art and Design, DON1 documented his iconic work, along with that of his well known contemporaries, using his trusted 35mm camera. This penetrating work takes the reader inside the supernova that was DON1's creative life with nearly 200 never before seen graffiti photos of the most undocumented NYC train lines and an even rarer glimpse at work from his black book.

Available at Amazon (paid link)

Blade: King of Graffiti

2014. Steven Ogburn, Roger Gastman & Chris Pape

BLADE has already told his life story through graffiti. Now, more than forty years into his career and armed with an incredible memory, BLADE sits down with Chris Pape to reflect on growing up in the Bronx in the turbulent 1970s, and recounts the highs and lows of his storied career, holding nothing back. BLADE is considered "The King of Graffiti" because, by 1980, after painting 5,000 wildly creative trains, he stopped counting. This book parallels the New York graffiti movement almost from its inception, moving through its glory years in the mid-1970s, when BLADE earned his title, and ending in the global art scene, where he remains a major presence. BLADE helped New York graffiti become internationally famous by making it look fun, and, for reasons of quantity, quality, and, perhaps above all, for sheer spirit, BLADE may very well be the most popular graffiti artist with his peers.

Available at Amazon (paid link)

Giant Blackbook

2014. Mike Giant

International icon of black ink, artist Michael (GIANT) LeSage incorporates a broad swathe of skills in the creation of a singular, unmistakable aesthetic. Mike's central practice, drawing, is informed by his training in architectural drafting, his illustrious career as a tattooist and worldwide exploits of writing on walls. Here in his personalised journal, produced in association with REBEL8, 108 pages of wide open blackbook potential is peppered with 10 spreads of GIANT's amazing hand scripts and drawings.

Available at Amazon (paid link)

Acclaim: Chaz

2015

Handstyler

Est 2015. “There’s Art in a Tag”

A kindred spirit and project similar this one, Handstyler offers art supplies, merchandise and occasional but high quality original content.

Born to Run:
NYC Subway Graffiti
on the IND and BMT Lines

2018. Tod Lange, Lee Quinones

Despite playing canvas to a long list of talented writers, the IND (Independent) and BMT (Brooklyn Manhattan Transit) lines have been underrepresented in graffiti history. This is now rectified with a collection of high-quality images from the 1970s and 80s that capture works by heavyweights from the BMT like Lee, Mono, Iz The Wiz, Baby168, OE3, P13, and many others. From Coney Island to Queensboro Plaza and everywhere in between, these nostalgic images capture elevated subway scenes, stations, and subway yards and offer a glimpse through time at Brooklyn and Queens in the height of the NYC subway graffiti era. This truly amazing lineup also features early writers on the IND lines like Pistol, Piper, A'train, and IN, in addition to obscure names and throw-ups from these undocumented corridors. This is an ideal volume of subway art for graffiti artists, fans, historians, and students looking for rare photos on the letter lines.

Available at Amazon (paid link)

Pixacao:
Sao Paulo Signature

2007. Francois Chastenet

Despite laws, pixacoes have taken over Sao Paulo. Literally meaning `trace' or `stain' and dating back in its contemporary form to the mid-1980s, pixacoe is a striking form of graffiti unique to the city that developed when Sao Paulo writers began creating imaginary calligraphic signatures influenced by hybrid blackletter, historic letterforms and the logos of heavy metal and hardcore bands. Claiming the architectural facades of the city as their canvas, the omnipresent pixacoes are a true calligraphic shock that have caused a deep aesthetic transformation of the face of Sao Paulo. With more than 125 photos as well as a detailed analysis of the phenomenon, Sao Paulo Signature deciphers for the very first time an unparalleled graphic universe.

"The astute analysis which is expanded upon in this volume opened my myopic eyes to a system of writing and ethic of creation that rises above even the most high-spirited and emblematic American graffiti." Steven Heller

Available at Amazon (paid link)

Cholo Writing: Latino Gang Graffiti in Los Angeles

2009. Francois Chastenet, Howard Gribble, Chaz Bojorquez

Cholo writing originally constitues the handstyle created by the Latino gangs in Los Angeles. It is probably the oldest form of the graffiti of names in the 20th century, with its own aesthetic, evident long before the East Coast appearance and the explosion in the early 1970s in Philadelphia and New York.

Cholo inscriptions have a speficic written aesthetic based on a strong sense of the place and on a monolinear adaptation of historic blackletters for street bombing. Howard Gribble, an amateur photographer from the city of Torrance in the South of Los Angeles County, documented Latino gang graffiti from 1970 to 1975. These photographs of various Cholo handletterings, constituted an unique opportunity to try to push forward the calligraphic analysis of Cholo writing, its origins and formal evolution. A second series of photographs made by Francois Chastanet in 2008 from East LA to South Central, are an attempt to produce a visual comparison of letterforms by finding the same barrios (neighborhoods) and gangs group names more than thirty five years after Gribbles work.

Available at Amazon (paid link)

Calligraffiti: The Graphic Art of Niels Shoe Meulman

2010. Niels Shoe Meulman

'Calligraffiti - The Graphic Art of Niels "SHOE" Meulman' is an impressive publication that presents a large selection of typographic works by Niels Shoe Meulman arranged in a uniquely simplistic manner; every spread presents two interacting visuals on its opposing pages. This repeating duality makes this book much more than just a collection of the artists best work; it unveils the basis of all graphic art. The idea of universal harmony, sometimes described as yin and yang, is translated to the 21st century. Like black and white or even less and more. Throughout the book there will be comments written by Adam Eeuwens and the artist. The book will also include an essay by Adam Eeuwens about the artist and the significance of his work. Niels Shoe Meulman is a contemporary Dutch calligrapher, typographer and designer who successfully made the transition from the street to high end design. His work can be described as classical freehand calligraphy combined with street edge and contemporary design aesthetic. With firm roots in graffiti, Shoe is a member of Europes infamous Crime Time Kings who ruled supreme in the 80s and 90s.Today, his design and typographic works are included in the permanent collections of MOMA San Francisco and the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. They can also be found wandering the streets, gracing a range of luxurious silk scarves out on his Unruly label worn by fashionistas and Hip Hop heads alike.

Available at Amazon (paid link)

Sly Artistic City

2010 documentary on the history of graffiti in Philadelphia

Directed by Robert Moran

Featuring interviews with Cool Earl, Kool Klepto Kidd, Johnski, Notorious BIK, MB, Kair, former mayor Wilson Goode, Jane Golden, and many more.

Gimme The Loot

2013 Scripted Film

Directed by Adam Leon

Available at Amazon (paid link) in streaming and DVD Formats

Urban Styles:
Graffiti in NYHC

2017. Freddy Alva

Signed author copies of expanded 2nd edition 
(Please list who to dedicate the book to)

*Exclusive interview with Graffiti legend REVS featuring never before seen photos. 
*NYHC Graffiti Tattoos chapter w/INK, VERS & Steven Huie 
*Extra pieces to Black Book section 
*Added extra 40 pages from 1st edition. 
*372 pages with hundreds of photographs

Urban Styles: Graffiti is a subterranean adventure back to a time when subcultures and underground movements blended seamlessly and went largely unnoticed by the mainstream world. Urban Styles deftly straddles the seemingly incongruent worlds of graffiti culture and the hardcore punk scene of the 1980s to tell the story of a unique moment in time when crossover between the two outlaw cultures was a common, if not heralded, occurrence. Urban Styles chronicles a gritty New York City and its boroughs while telling the stories of forgotten revolutionaries who were as familiar with stealth runs through train yards as they were slamming on the CBGB dance floor. Through an array of iconic images and first-hand accounts; interviews and essays, Alva compiles a history of youth culture that reinforces the connection between these two subcultures and shows the symbiotic influences shared by both hip-hop and hardcore. This tale is told through the eyes and memories of band members that were adept at wielding spray cans and the writers that represented New York Hardcore on the streets. Urban Styles features the voices of those who shaped both a sound and a movement and the visual iconography of a vibrant outburst of color amidst a greying urban decay. A number of illuminating stories and examinations of culture are told by NYHC veterans like Chaka Malik, Mackie Jayson, Lord Ezec, REVS, Sacha Jenkins, and a host of others who populated the NYHC scene of the 1980s and 90s. Crews and members are represented as well, along with the first writers who played in bands. There is a plethora of exclusive images, most never seen before, and some done specifically for the book. It is a history culled from record and demo tape covers, flyers, t-shirts, and paintings that celebrates the union of these two uniquely New York street cultures and shines a spotlight on two artistic movements that have gone on to have world-wide influence on today's mainstream culture.

Available at Urban Styles NYC

The Art of Writing Your Name: Urban Calligraphy and Beyond

2017. Christian Hundertmark

Stylish lettering as always been of great importance within the graffiti and street art movements. Over the last 25 years many artists have pushed the practice into a powerful stylized calligraphy. The Art of Writing Your name follows the arc of this movement from its earliest practitioners such as Chaz Bojorquez to more recent adopters such as Usugrow, profiling 35 of the world's hottest urban calligraphers along the way. Niels SHOW Meulman is a foundational artist in the movement, but others such as Cryptik, JonOne, L'Atlas, SABER, Faust, and Vincent Abadie Hafez also light the way. Graffiti fanatics, hand lettering fans, street art junkies, calligraphy lovers, and type enthusiasts all have something to learn from this fascinating tome. Christian Hundertmark, editor of the ongoing Art of Rebellion series co-authored The Art of Writing Your Name along with Patrick Hartl, creating a comprehensive sourcebook in the process

Available at Amazon (paid link)

Lady Pink

2020

Expose of the life and work of Lady Pink, one of the writers who made an impact first on the early 80s NYC underground and above ground graff scenes. Lady Pinks impact moved beyond NYC after some trailblazing gallery shows and a memorable appearance in Style Wars. Here, she talks abut her experience.

Variations

2020. Ego

French writer, Egoner’s Letter Variations sketchbook

Writer’s Itch

2021

Leaving Names Everywhere

2022

NYHC Chronicles 193: Kaves

2022

Kaves interviews starts at about 11:00.
Brooklyn graff history from a master storyteller.