Mass Distraction Press was set up as an outlet for Michael Ryan's visual journalism work. As a typographer and bookmaker he has published a series of books relating to his areas of interest.

Graphic Authorship is a name Michael prefers to use for his work. Under this catagory he has produced most recently a series of books relating to the Gulf war.

 

The books, Into The Red Zone and Smoking Guns and Desert Rats appropriate some of the media hype used during the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and are designed to re-present a type of language which, when stripped of its normal context, could be

re-appraised with new interpretations as to its meanings.

Mike Ryan enjoys using working methods from his discipline in more personal ways and is interested in the debate, which concerns the validity of ‘the designer as author’.  He sees what he does as a form of commentary, the book as artefact is an ideal vehicle for these ideas.  He’s not comfortable, however, with the term ‘artists book’, which can be a little ambiguous.

 

Mike consider what he does more as ‘text-works’, which have, to spring from some personal observation or critique on how everyday language is used, making the work very content driven.  The result, he thinks, is a useful marriage of language and typography.