Coming into focus: posters, power, and visual culture in the history of medicine.

This paper investigates why, during the 1980s and 1990s health posters moved into focus in Anglo-American intellectual culture. It argues, that this cannot be explained simply by the fact that more posters came to be produced during the "time of AIDS". It suggests the greater importance of broader shifts in socio-political life and epistemology. Through reference to works dealing with posters, two shifts in particular are highlighted: understanding the nature of power in society with an emphasis on the human body, and the increasing visualisation of all aspects of modern life.