A Humorous Offensive: Tracing the Development of an “Anarcho-Punk” Aesthetic in Gee Vaucher’s Images for Crass (1979-84)

This paper discusses the idiosyncratic visual material, which Gee Vaucher produced as part of the unique and influential 'anarcho-punk' band and collective, Crass (1977-1984). There is a profound lack of academic writing on Vaucher’s design language, despite a widespread acknowledgement of its significance to punk-graphics artists and designers. Vaucher’s autonomous mode of production can be seen as an essential component of her influence on the development of a specifically anarcho-punk aesthetic in the 1980s, while her use of humour and obscenity creates a design language, which carries specific meanings for its intended audience. Vaucher also derives prominence from her position as a female artist providing a distinct ‘feminist’ critique within a predominantly male genre.