Alec “Icky” Dunn

Alec “Icky” Dunn is an illustrator, writer, and printer living in Portland, OR.  He has designed book and record covers, political graphics, punk fliers and is a member of the Justseeds Artists Cooperative. Alec is a nurse who works in critical care, harm reduction, and street medicine. He has co-edited Signal: A Journal of International Political Graphics & Culture with Josh MacPhee since 2010 and co-authored An Introductory Guide to Assessing and Understanding Common Wounds with People Who Inject Drugs (with Tim Gauthier)in 2020. In his Portland youth, he had his nose broken (twice), had a bottle broken over his head (which didn’t hurt), and a brick clock him on the side of the head (which did hurt), all by neo nazi skinheads. 

• Book events
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• More from Alec

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Signal 01 includes:

• The Future of Xicana Printmaking: Alec Dunn and Josh MacPhee interview the Taller Tupac Amaru
• The Adventures of Red Rat: Alec Dunn interviews Johannes van de Weert
• Hard Travelin’: A photo essay with IMPEACH
• Early 20th-Century Anarchist Imprints
• Mexico 68: The Graphic Production of a Movement: Santiago Armengod interviews Felipe Hernandez Moreno
• Adventure Playgrounds: A photo essay
• Designing Anarchy: Dan Poyner interviews Rufus Segar

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Signal 02 includes:

• Design, Mass-Production, and Social Movements: An Interview with Sandy K. of image-shift
• Anarchist Posters in Japan
• Breaking Chains: Political Graphics and the Anti-Apartheid Struggle
• Selling Freedom: Promotional Posters from the 1910s
• Street Art, Oaxacan Struggle, and the Mexican Context
• Covering the Wall: Revolutionary Murals in 1970s Portugal
• Røde Mor -Danish printmaking, pop music, and politics

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Signal 03 includes:

• Sonic Internationalism: An Interview with Paredon Records Founder Barbara Dane
• Game of Destruction: Deltor Stencils the Enemies of Socialism by Stephen Goddard
• Organized Artists/Reproductive Resistance: Reflecting on the Medu Arts Ensemble
• Quebec Spring: Striking Culture by David Widgington
• Memories of Revolution: Yugoslav Partisan Memorials by Robert Burghardt and Gal Kirn

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Signal 04 includes:

• Imaging Palestine: Rochelle Davis and Emma Murphy take a look at Palestinian Affairs, one of the PLO’s major publications
• Fighting Fire with Water: Lincoln Cushing discusses the Bay Area Peace Navy’s large-scale visual interventions
• The Walls Speak Even If the Media Is Silent: Tennessee Watson documents a project made in response to the violence in Juárez
• Revolutionary Continuum: Jared Davidson cracks open New Zealand’s Kotare Trust Poster Archive
• Kommune 1: Michael McCanne teases out the early years of West Germany’s militant counterculture
• Illustrating the 3rd World: Josh MacPhee interviews Max Karl Winkler, book cover designer for Three Continents Press
• Dynamic Collectivity: Ryan Hayes traces the history of Toronto’s Punchclock Printing Collective

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Signal 05 includes:

• The Club de Grabado de Montevideo: Georgia Phillips-Amos unearths printmaking under dictatorship
• Three Print Collectives: Alec Dunn interviews Friends of Ibn Firnas, A3BC, and the Pangrok Sulap collective
• Survival by Sharing—Printing over Profit: Josh MacPhee interviews Paul Werner about the history of New York City’s Come!Unity Press
• The Pyramid’s Reign: Analyzing an enduring symbol of capitalism with Eric Triantafillou
• Empty Forms—Occupied Homes: Marc Herbst looks at the intersection between movement design and the struggle for housing in Barcelona
• Discs of the Gun: A trip through music and militancy in postwar Italy by Josh MacPhee

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Praise

“Offering these graphics to generations far beyond their original audiences, this title is recommended for designers, activists, archivists, and scholars studying protest movements.”
—Library Journal

“If you are interested in the use of graphic art and communication in political struggles, don’t miss the latest issue of Signal.”
—Rick Poynor, Design Observer

“As a series, this is a great resource. Dunn and MacPhee are filling a void.”
—Printeresting.org

Signal 06 includes:

• Basement Workshop: The Genesis of New York’s Asian American Resistance Culture
• Jamaa Al-Yad: An Interview with Daniel Drennan ElAwar
• La Escuela de Cultura Popular Revolucionaria Mártires del 68: Thirty Years of Collective Agitation in Mexico City
• The Appalachian Movement Press
• Adhesing Uprisings, and much more.

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Praise

“Offering these graphics to generations far beyond their original audiences, this title is recommended for designers, activists, archivists, and scholars studying protest movements.”
—Library Journal

“Signal reads like a magazine in that it consists of a number of smaller, independent articles but the loose continuity of subject holds it together as a book. As a series, this is going to be a great resource. Dunn and MacPhee are filling a void in terms of political graphics; there’s a lot of material for them to cover and this is solid start.”
—Printeresting.org

“Signal is dotted with stunning photography that will certainly reel in many people who are into unusual art. Clocking in at just under 140 glossy pages, Dunn and MacPhee do an impressive job of conveying not only what is new and relevant in political art, but also its history and its presence in the everyday.”
—Political Media Review

“If you are interested in the use of graphic art and communication in political struggles, don’t miss the latest issue of Signal.”
—Rick Poynor, Design Observer

“Signal couldn’t have arrived at a better time to reassure those of us using visual culture to enter a political discourse. ”
—Last Hours

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Praise

“I can’t think of any other design or visual arts publication quite like Signal in form and content. It is halfway between a magazine and a book in appearance and tone. Its dinky size, combined with astutely pitched, matte-laminated cover designs, make it immediately intriguing and attractive.”
—Rick Poynor, Design Observer

“Dunn and MacPhee do an impressive job of conveying not only what is new and relevant in political art, but also its history and its presence in the everyday.”
—Political Media Review

“The affordable pocketbook format perfectly complements the subject. Editors Dunn and MacPhee make the most of that layout: the reproductions of posters, flyers, murals, and magazine and book covers are clean and clear, with attractive spreads and color reproductions. Verdict: Offering these graphics to generations far beyond their original audiences, this title is recommended for designers, activists, archivists, and scholars studying protest movements.”
—Michael Dashkin, Library Journal

Book Events

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Reviews

• The Daily Heller: Integrating Message and Method
• Signal:04 in Library Journal
• Signal: 03 A Review on Dubdog
• Signal:  02 A Journal of International Political Graphics & Culture
• Signal 01: A Review in PMR
• Signal 01: A Review in Last Hours
• Signal 01: A Review
• Signal 01: A Review
• Sending Signals about Political Graphics
• Printeresting Spotlights Signal 01
• Book Review: Signal:08 A Journal of International Political Graphics & Culture

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Interviews

• Revolutionary Arts with Signal Journal + Abolition with Mwalimu Shakur
• Political designs for our times— Signal in Red Pepper Magazine

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Mentions

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Blog

• Signal 07: Round-up
• Signal 01 is out!
• Signal 02: Editor’s Round Up
• Signal:03 Editor’s Round Up
• Signal:04 Editor’s Round Up
• Signal:06 Editors’ Round-Up