DESIGNER UNKNOWN
29
●
DÉFENDEZ - VOUS CONTRE LA SYPHILIS. Circa 1930.
46
1
/
2
x31 inches, 118x78
3
/
4
cm. PAG, Paris.
Condition B: losses along vertical and horizontal folds; creases, abrasions and staining in margins and image.
Paper. Framed.
A public awareness poster to warn the populace about the dangers of syphilis. In no uncertain terms
it reads, “Defend yourself against syphilis. Don’t expose yourself to infection, but if you already have
it: to avoid spreading it to those near you, so that your children are not maimed, so that you yourself
avoid becoming, sooner or later, BLIND, PARALYZED, ATAXIC or MAD start treatment right away
from your doctor or at anti-veneral dispensaries. Ask the Ministry of Health for the list of addresses.”
This poster, which was part of a large campaign all over Paris at the time, made an impression on
Henry Miller, who writes in
Tropic of Cancer
, “In every Metro station there are grinning skulls that
greet you with
Défendez-vous contre la syphilis!
Wherever there are walls, there are posters with bright
venomous crabs heralding the approach of cancer. No matter where you go, no matter what you touch,
there is cancer and syphilis.”
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