Gauntlet Gallery
What is Shepard Fairey’s piece called “Bureau Of Public Works (First Edition)”?
Artist Statement
BUREAU OF PUBLIC WORKS Screen Print 18 x 24 inches Edition of 300
Summary
Bureau Of Public Works (First Edition) is a 2004 Shepard Fairey screen print, published by Obey Giant in an edition of 300 and measuring 18 x 24 inches. The print references Fairey's own studio and production identity, the Bureau of Public Works, framing the artist's enterprise in the language of an official agency. The composition uses Fairey's characteristic propaganda-poster vocabulary: bold graphic forms, hand-built screen-print color, and institutional typography. As a first-edition release tied directly to the OBEY production house, it sits within Fairey's mid-2000s body of studio-branded works on paper.
Why It Matters
Bureau Of Public Works turns the apparatus of officialdom inward, casting Fairey's own studio as a quasi-governmental "bureau" and playing on the tension between propaganda and self-promotion that runs through his career. For collectors, the appeal is partly conceptual: the print documents how Fairey built a recognizable institutional brand around his street-art practice, complete with the visual gravitas of seals, agencies, and public works. The edition of 300 places it among the more accessible mid-2000s Obey Giant screen prints, yet its direct connection to the studio identity gives it a documentary value beyond a generic poster. It belongs to the same 2004 cluster as other studio- and pop-culture-themed releases, and reads as a knowing wink at how authority is manufactured through graphic design. Because the source provides only edition size, dimensions, medium, and year, the importance here is interpretive rather than market-driven: it is a clear example of Fairey using bureaucratic iconography as both critique and branding, a recurring strategy that ties his commercial and political output together.
Collector Perspective
This print appeals to collectors who focus on Fairey's studio identity and his play with institutional branding rather than on celebrity-portrait pieces. At 18 x 24 inches with an edition of 300, it is an attainable entry point for newer OBEY collectors and a natural companion to other 2004 Obey Giant releases. Its bold, agency-style graphics make it a strong wall piece in a grouping of propaganda-flavored prints, where the bureaucratic motif reads clearly. Buyers building a thematic set around OBEY iconography and corporate or institutional critique will value it as a representative example of how Fairey frames his own enterprise. It rewards owners who appreciate concept and design over straightforward portraiture.
Historical Context
Bureau Of Public Works fits into the mid-2000s phase of Fairey's career, when Obey Giant had matured from the 1989 Andre the Giant sticker campaign into a fully developed studio releasing regular screen-print editions. By 2004 Fairey was consolidating a recognizable institutional persona around his practice, and titles invoking a "bureau" or public works echo that self-mythologizing strategy. This period precedes his 2008 Obama "Hope" breakthrough, placing the print firmly in the propaganda-and-posters stretch of his output, when he was refining the official-agency visual language that would later carry his political work. As one of several 2004 Obey Giant editions of 300, it documents the productive, brand-building years between his street-art origins and mainstream recognition.
FAQ
When was Bureau Of Public Works released and in what edition?
It was released in 2004 by Obey Giant as a First Edition screen print in an edition of 300. The source record confirms the year, publisher, edition designation, and edition size, making it one of Fairey's mid-2000s studio releases on paper.
What are the dimensions and medium of this print?
Bureau Of Public Works is a screen print measuring 18 x 24 inches, as stated in the record's description. Screen printing is Fairey's signature medium, giving the work its flat, poster-like color fields and crisp graphic edges.
What does the title refer to?
The title references Fairey's institutional and studio identity, the Bureau of Public Works, framing his own enterprise in the language of an official agency. This reflects his recurring strategy of borrowing bureaucratic and propaganda iconography for both branding and gentle critique.
How does it fit in Fairey's career?
It comes from the mid-2000s, after the 1989 OBEY sticker campaign and before the 2008 Obama "Hope" image. The record places it among several 2004 Obey Giant editions of 300, during the period when Fairey was building a recognizable institutional brand around his practice.
Related Works
About the Artist
Shepard Fairey (b. 1970, Charleston, South Carolina) is an American street artist, graphic designer, and activist, and a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design. His 1989 “André the Giant Has a Posse” sticker grew into the global OBEY GIANT campaign — an ongoing experiment in propaganda, obedience, and visual culture. He reached worldwide recognition with the 2008 “Hope” portrait of Barack Obama, now held by the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. Across screen prints, stencils, murals, and collage, Fairey channels propaganda aesthetics toward themes of peace, justice, environmentalism, and civil rights. His work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Victoria & Albert Museum, and LACMA.