Never Forget is a book providing a visual archive of souvenir objects, novelties and ephemera from the Gulf War (1990-91) and the post-2001 'War on Terror', spanning both the United States and the Middle East.
Juxtaposing American patriotic merchandise with items produced in Iraq, Afghanistan and beyond, the book offers a provocative look at the strange afterlives of conflict, how trauma, pride, grief and myth are made tangible through souvenirs.
From Desert Storm commemorative Pepsi bottles and Saddam Hussein voodoo dolls to 9/11 snow globes and Osama Bin Laden Nokia cases, Never Forget explores how decades of conflict have been commemorated, commercialised and casually absorbed into everyday life.
Some items were created to stir national pride, others to mock, mourn or commodify conflict, but together, they form a tangled visual narrative of post-1990s war culture where pride and pain coexist and where history is shrink-wrapped and sold. By placing these artefacts side by side, the book reveals the complex, often surreal ways war is packaged for public consumption.
Lock Books, 272pp, 15cm x 21cm, illustrated hardback, 2025
