36th Congress of the Fugue State

Muck Trail

Oven Safety

This poster is a replica of those produced in 1957 for the oft-forgotten 36th Congress of the Fugue State.

A tri-annual congress first held in Canaan, New York in 1849, the 36th Congress represents its first time being held in an arid location. The congress was long considered one of the foremost gatherings of thinkers and non-thinkers who nobly strived to “elucidate and disseminate the grandest and smallest of ideas and non-ideas in a manner both rigorous and frivolous.”

In keeping with its goals, no minutes nor recordings of a congress have ever been found. The results of each congress were often lost in the “idea-scattering” ceremony that capped the final day. This poster represents the only known-surviving poster of a congress. The final congress was held six years later in Utica, New York.

This poster is currently on display at Tappan Hall, The University of Michigan’s Fine Arts Library.

This poster is no joking matter.

Here at the University of Michigan, the issue of oven safety is pressing, pertinent and persistent. Operating without a grant from the Ann Arbor commission for public safety, and unaided by public discourse, I took it upon myself to face the issue.

This poster screams: “OPEN DIALOGUE SURROUNDING OVEN SAFETY IS NOT PROTECTED, EVEN ON OUR NATION’S UNIVERSITY CAMPUSES!!!”

Big oven continues to advocate against easily legible dials and to this day encourages baked roommates to bake.