TART CARDS: Londons Illicit Advertising Art. A new graphic book by Caroline Archer Published by Mark Batty Publisher

In a style that is both authentic and entertaining, Tart Cards takes you on a tour through illicit printed solicitation, incluing more than 350 contemporary and historic tart cards, plus interviews with the service providers themselves

Sex anybody? If youve ever happened to be walking down a London Street and, needing to make a phone call, stopped inside a public telephone booth... then this question will have a titillating familiarity.

While prostitution is not illegal in Britain, soliciting on the street is. Until the Criminal Justice and Police Act of 2001, tart cards were the exception to this rule. Even now, about 14 million cards advertising the services of prostitutes are still left in public phone booths around London each year.

To explore this controversial phenomenon, Mark Batty Publisher is pleased to announce the July publication of TART CARDS: Londons Illicit Advertising Art.

In a style that is both authentic and entertaining, this tour through illicit printed solicitation includes more than 350 contemporary and historic tart cards, plus interviews with the service providers themselves... the risk taking marketers (known as the carders") and printers who produce the cards... the clientele whose decisions are influenced by this media... and the local authorities who continually seek to wipe it out... once and for all.

Back in the 80s and 90s tart cards were an accepted, either egregious or compelling, everyday aspect of London life. The cards were also effective for the 'girls. A few years ago children bored of trading on Pokemon and Football in the playground began to trade on... tart cards.

The local government and 'concerned citizens finally joined forces to stop the flood of cards and the practice was soon declared illegal.

Authorities have since made their best efforts to eradicate tart cards completely. But when even a pub game -- called Prostitute Trading Trumps -- is based on the concept, how could they really succeed? Tart cards are now a recognized art form and are collected by institutions and individuals worldwide.

Including a comprehensive tongue-in-cheek glossary of the suggested and coded language used on the cards, this is the very first book-length, in-depth expose of how this unique form of graphic design has evolved into the controversial method of advertising it is today.

TART CARDS: Londons Illicit Advertising Art by Caroline Archer
Published by Mark Batty Publisher
Available nationwide July 2003, soft cover, priced $24.95
ISBN 0-9724240-4-0, 7 5/8 X 10 inches, 128 pages

Caroline Archer is a PhD graduate of typography and graphic arts from University of Reading, England. She has taught both the theory and practice of typography design and is the author of several books on the graphic arts. She is also a founding Trustee of the newly established St. Bride Printing Foundation.