BOOK REVIEWS

Trench Art Nicholas J. Saunders

"Trench Art" - the name is very evocative but often misleading. The genre isn't limited to objects made by soldiers in the trenches, whiling away their spare time; it also encompasses objects made behind the lines and even commercially after the war, as souvenirs to be sold to visitors. It can be a confusing subject.  There is no confusion though, about who should be considered the leading authority on Trench Art - that is Nicholas Saunders, without doubt.  He carried out the first serious study into Trench Art and has since been involved in exhibitions at many leading museums.

In this book he considers the different types of trench art, suggesting an effective set of guidelines by which they can be classified, and also the way in which they were produced, the wide range of materials used and the reasons behind their manufacture.

The illustrations are excellent, illustrating the wide variations in materials, techniques and styles which the makers brought to their work. Trench Art varies from the primitively simple to the delicately complex.  But as Nicholas Saunders says in his introduction, we have to consider Trench Art not as a phenomenon of the war years, nor as a commercial hangover from the year which followed, but as a strong statement of Remembrance to inspire us today.  "Each item is a testament to the skills and fortitude of human beings under the most unbearable pressures of modern war.  Each object, however humble, is a symbol of the human spirit in extremis."

Trench Art

is published by:

Shire Publications Ltd.

Soft Covers

28pages, 97 colour and 6 black-and-white illustrations

ISBN: 0-7478-0543-1

Return to the Bookshelf Page

Return to the Hellfire Corner Contents Section