Jason, good post. The courage and passion of these designers to make posters under the horrific conditions of the ethnic war in that part of the world is admirable. Once I met a woman who lived thru that genocide and it was a sad and haunting experience talking to her. Maybe this book with be a visual landmark of the tragedy of ethnic conflict. The unfathonable brutality. Both sides wishing for some understanding and recognition of their point of view. That's what makes impactful posters: A passionate point of view. Thanks.

Daoud was one of the speakers at a conference I attended last year (AGIdeas in Melbourne, Australia). He spoke about the creation of the book, and the posters within it. Amazing stories of dedication by the artists. Very inspirational.

For another highly visual and strongly recommended take on the subject of the Bosnian war, check out Joe Sacco's excellent Safe Area Gorazde.

Nice post Jason. Further along these lines, the May/June 2005 issue of Print has an excellent article on Skart - a group of designers, artists and performers who's work, primarily self-financed, packed a powerful message.

This type of work, such as that produced by Skart, hasn't been seen much within the US over the past couple of decades, but once did have a substancial amount of activity in the major metropolitan areas such as NYC and the Bay Area, in addition to university cities. Often this was a loosely based hybrid of Situationist detournement and John Heartfield style Dadaesque photomontage posters, pamphlets and manifestos.

Having seen much of this work, it was, oddly enough, some of the best design I've seen. Some was done by professionals as a side interest, but much more was done by amateurs who were driven by the commitment, nee obsession, that drove the work and it was filled with passion.

Much is the case with the material in Evil Doesn’t Live Here and the work of Skart - passion and commitment in place of training and credentials created works of surprising innovation, beauty and powerful messaging.

These posters and communications are driven by passion, and what makes the book a success is the high degree of background the authors give. Like the Korean War, the Bosnian War continues to be a conflict that few dedicate conversation and research to. WWII and Vietnam get discussed more in American culture, but hopefully this book (and others) will make an impact in the attention given to the Bosnian War. It's refreshing to see a design book lead the way in such a mission.

i'm suprised this book did not get mentioned in sarajevo or elsewhere in bosnia. i had an unique opportunity to live through the siege and to have bojan hadzihaliloviic (of design agency "trio") as a professor at the academy of fine arts.

in recent years one of the most well known "war" posters - trio's "enjoy sarajevo" - has become a souvenier (hope i spelled that right) and has lost, or at least changed, its message. still a limited edition of this poster, that was printed on discarded military (minefield) maps is (imho) one of the posters of this "era" with strongest (sub)message.

also, one should mention the "afterwar" bosnian posters, mainly works of anur hadziomerspahic (ideologija) including recent series of posters that mark tenth anniversary of srebrenica massacre.