Subway Art(efact) by Edward Birzin a.k.a. NOV

Edward Birzin (NOV), known for his two readers What Do One Million JA Tags Signify? and Kilroy’s Conformity, is a New York originated graffiti writer who began in the 1990s. In 2010 he started The Subway Art History Project in which he reinterpreted famous pieces depicted in SUBWAY ART and filled them with new historic meaning. During this project the idea for his Ph.D. thesis evolved in which he focused on how publications on graffiti created and defined graffiti much more than they solely documented it.

The Subway Art(efact) book is an abridged version of his 2019 thesis in which he combined the pieces from his History Project with the compacted content. The three sources Birzin did put a spotlight on are the 1971 New York Times article on TAKI183, Norman Mailer, Mervyn Kulanski and Jon Naar’s 1974 The Faith of Graffiti and the 1984 classic SUBWAY ART by Martha Cooper and Henry Chalfant. In the 100-paged softcover he points out how the regional New York City namewriting phenomenon merged into a international movement through the influence and interpretation of these selected publications.

Unlike the majority of other scientific texts on graffiti, it’s the rare occasion here, that the author brings with him a three decade spanning experience as actor in the field of namewriting. His first hand point of view gives a unique authentic insight into the often misinterpreted and/or misunderstood research area of graffiti. We only have a small batch of this limited 150 copy edition and recommend saving it before it is sold out.

100 pages, 20,2 x 28 cm, softcover with flaps
Edition size: 150
Language: English
Release date: August 2025
ISBN: 978-90-833493-3-6
Publisher: Ruyzdael Publishing