Berlin City Language

This book looks beyond graffiti to decipher Berlin?s hidden language. Like many of the world?s urban centers, Berlin is awash in signage that most people never see, let alone read. In this dazzling, kinetic collection of color photographs, more than 250 images create a tableau of urban hieroglyphics. Mangler spent nearly three years documenting these messages and icons -- scrawled on walls, plastered to signposts, or strewn amid the urban detritus that his fellow Berliners pass by every day. Viewed in their environment, they emerge as an intriguing form of communication and powerful, though fleeting, works of art. Christoph Mangler is a film director in Berlin.