"This is the city and I am one of the citizens, whatever interests the rest interests me."

With a quote by Walt Whitman, Belgian graphic artist Frans Masereel unveils "The City: A vision in woodcuts." Masereel, who became known for his pacifist anarchism, achieved with this 1925 woodcut series an uncanny precursor to the modern graphic novel.

Almost a century after their publication, many characteristics still make the compendium of The City an emblematic representation of urbanism pertinent to our times. In their simplicity and starkness, Masereel's woodcut plates exude a primitive attraction as essential and direct as any photojournalistic endeavor. This central characteristic; the accessibility of the image both in substance and form, makes The City not only an artistic exemplar but also an iconic record of urban life.

Masereel's visual essentialism bears forth in monochrome purity. Each piece works as an individual composition depicting the banality of everyday life, captured in spaces filled with infrastructure, buildings and architectural artifacts. The city never escapes the viewer nor the protagonist inside the swift graphic narrative. Joy, horror, hope and failure come alive in the midst of both intimate and public spaces part of an idealized city, known only by the artist yet recognizable through deeper reflection by each of us in our surroundings, paths and gazes.

Masereel's city is also our city. The colors, techniques, characters, artifacts and may have changed with time, craft and technology, but the story of winers and losers remains the same. Each page of The City turns with ethnographic honesty, illustrating the social hierarchies systems, the bureaucracies, rituals, and practices that define urban life.

Where is Maseree's City, with all its vice and splendor, frailty and vigor? and what questions or responsibilities does it leave us with? I return to Masereel regularly, to become inspired from clarity of aesthetic precision and remember the ideas that guide research and practice.

Credits: Image of The City: A vision in Woodcuts from Dover Publications. Video of Woodcuts from Youtube