"The posters produced by the ATELIER POPULAIRE are weapons in the service of the struggle and are an inseparable part of it. Their rightful place is in the centers of conflict, that is to say, in the streets and on the walls of the Factories. To use them for decorative purposes, to display them in bourgeois places of culture or to consider them as objects of aesthetic interest is to impair both their function and their effect. This is why the ATELIER POPULAIRE has always refused to put them on sale. Even to keep them as historical evidence of a certain stage in the struggle is a betrayal, for the struggle itself is of such primary importance that the position of an "outside" observer is a fiction which inevitably plays into the hands of the Ruling Class. That is why these works should not be taken as the final outcome of an experience, but as an inducement for finding, though contact with the masses, new levels of action, both on the cultural and the political plane." - Statement issued by the Artists of the Atelier Populaire, 1968.

This is perhaps the most famous image from the posters of '68 Paris. Here we see a person's head completely covered in bandages. We can't ascertain the person's race or gender, but can plainly see that this person has been brutalized. The eyes are whirlpools of pain, and anguish, over the mouth is placed a large safety pin. The caption announces that this is a portrait of A YOUTH DISTURBED TOO OFTEN BY THE FUTURE. What does this image tell us? Is it merely the image of a person abused by the authorities, or is it a prophesy of collective retreat into apathy and cowardice? Is the safety pin there to hold the bandages in place, or is it there to hold the person's tongue in place? Whatever the interpretation, the image continues to resonate even in our times.

The violent repression launched by the government turned the streets of Paris into a raging battleground. Students and Workers responded to Police raids by tearing up cobblestone streets and building barricades to keep the authorities out of "liberated areas." Large parts of Paris fell under the temporary control of striking Students and Workers. Huge street battles ensued between Police and the citizenry for control of the zones. This poster, titled, ORDER REIGNS, informed the public that the State was restoring order by breaking the bones of Students and Workers.

A primary demand of the striking Workers was equitable pay, but many worried about the very nature of work under Capitalism. A great part of the Paris uprising was a rebellion against the trap of "alienated labor", and the Student movement especially contributed to the notion that work must be something more than mere drudgery carried out for a paycheck. This poster, titled, LIGHT WAGES - HEAVY TANKS, quipped that the Workers slave to create the weapons that will ultimately be used against them.