Wicked! Design on the Edge of Bad Taste

A blood stained shower curtain, a lighter that shows an airplane about to collide with the Twin Towers, plush slippers shaped like penises: the world of commodities today is marked by stylistic diversity, irony, and trash - there are no limits on so-called bad taste. This book attempts to get to the bottom of the current fascination with the disgusting, the grotesque, and the provocative. Products from the most disparate realms are juxtaposed on facing pages. The result is confrontations that are sometimes surprising, with a fascination all their own. Introductory essays by prominent authors shed additional light on wide-ranging aspects of design, morality, and irony. It is not just tasteless items that are placed under the microscope; politically incorrect ones have their place in this volume as well.