Book Review– Montana Writer Team - Graffiti at Its Best (Hardcover)
By Montanawriterteam
ruedione & Publikat-Published  2006

Montana Writer Team - Graffiti at Its Best, has been out in for nearly three years but is still a worthwhile look at five graffiti artists: Atom, Cantwo, Dash, Kent, and Smash137, as they travel around the globe featuring their talents.  The book chronicles roughly five years of selected works done by this traveling team.  It  profiles work done in various locations such as  Germany, Finland,  Russia and the United States.  It also gives some background and insight into who these artists are and their history within the graffiti culture.  The book is slightly over-sized, featuring  8 1/2 x 14 pages, which makes it decent for displaying  the photos.

All that said, my one major objection is its’ corporate feel with the giant shoe and clothing maker Adidas.  Adidas helped put this thing together and it’s never so evident than with the “art” featured in Hassmersheim, Germany.  The team there stumbles upon a rectangular building that looks something like, say a shoebox.  Can you guess what they painted?  An Adidas shoebox.  I realize that in today’s day and age to do some things on a large scale deep pockets have to come into the equation but I find it all rather fake and contrived.  Maybe these artists don’t care about that angle and I’m over-thinking things, but one thing that has drawn me to appreciate graffiti and street art is it’s fuck-off attitude toward the status quo and large corporations.

Everything withstanding, I think Montana isn’t a bad book and showcases some truly fantastic artwork done by these five immensely talented writers, however there are other graffiti books I’d put further up the list.