The Herb Lubalin Center of Design and Typography is pleased to present The Silkcreen Reclamation Project. The posters in this exhibition are part of collaboration between designer Paul Sahre and Cooper Union students Rachel Matts, Reed Burgoyne, David Maron, Erik Winkowski, and Sascha Mombartz.

The project involves the reclaiming of 200 partially printed posters (one color word bubbles) that Sahre designed for an event called "Where's My Democracy?" in 2004. The event was held at The Cooper Union's Great Hall and featured readings by authors Joyce Carol Oates, Lou Reed, Paul Auster, Jonathan Franzen, Susan Sontag and Dave Eggers among others.

At the last minute, the original design for the poster was abandoned due to printing difficulties involving the second color. The poster was redesigned on the spot (in a manner which would make printing easier and incorporating the already printed white bubbles) and a limited number—about 50 of the 250 completed posters—were sold at the original event.

In July of 2008 the remaining incomplete posters (that had been sitting in a flat file for 4 years) were distributed to each of the participating designers.

The participants had to face the same challenge of re-imagining the pre-existing one color poster (using the medium of silkscreen). They had the added benefit or burden of being able to ignore the original context and intent.