Shoe’s Black Book - Graffiti in the 1980s

Shoe’s Black Book – Graffiti in the 1980s by Niels Shoe Meulman offers an intimate look into the formative years of a rising artist. Long before the gallery shows, the critical acclaim, his evolution into a typographer, and the founding of the Calligraffiti movement, there was this: a battered, relentlessly used black book overflowing with tags, pieces, and outlines.

Between 1985 and 1987, Niels Shoe Meulman (Amsterdam, 1967) charted his progression from an eager newcomer to an artist carving out a distinct visual identity.

More than a mere sketchbook, this black book stands as a testament to the time when Shoe moved alongside New York icons such as Rammellzee, Dondi White and Keith Haring. It is a document of learning — part diary, part playground, part experimental zone. This facsimile reproduces a book once stolen and later returned under mysterious circumstances, now enriched with Shoe’s additional notes and vivid recollections that bring the era sharply into focus.

Each page preserves graffiti knowledge passed hand-to-hand and word-of-mouth. Shoe’s Black Book is both document and artefact — raw, unfiltered and authentic. While many books chronicle the culture, this one helped shape it.