Art: Rock paper SIZZLE

In the music business, an artist's image is sometimes more important than the music (see: Britney Spears). It's peculiar, then, that in the business of rock posters -- those dynamic, detailed pieces of art that advertise live shows -- the artist is almost never seen.

Not since the 1960s, when cutting-edge posters were created to match the era's cutting-edge musicians, has poster art been in such demand. Nowadays, screen-printed posters for bands like Wilco, Modest Mouse and the Melvins are as sought after as the music.

"A poster that contains an original illustration, that's what takes it to the next level compared to a flier with a band photo on it," said Clay Hayes, who presides over GigPosters.com, a database of more than 100,000 modern-rock show posters.

The 33-year-old from Calgary, Alberta, has become a sort of tastemaker (he's not an artist) since creating GigPosters.com in 2001. He likes to think of the website as an online art gallery, or a museum.

Now he's collected his favorites of the past decade into a beautifully designed book called "Gig Posters: Rock Show Art of the 21st Century," published this month by Quirk. For Twin Cities poster-art fans, the $40 book validates a claim we already knew:

The Twin Cities is a haven for some of the country's best poster artists.

Of the 101 designers featured in "Gig Posters," eight are from the Twin Cities: Aesthetic Apparatus, Burlesque of North America, David Witt, Squad 19, Adam Turman, Tooth, Amy Jo Hendrickson and Lonny Unitus. Only Austin, Texas, has more posters in the book, Hayes said.

"I don't know Minneapolis too well, but I know it has a pretty good music scene -- and along with that comes talented gig poster designers," Hayes said.

The Twin Cities might be a hub for poster activity, but Hayes said that stylistically, the artists have little in common. Where Aaron Horkey's illustrations are filled with detailed images of beasts and birds from the fantasy realm, his studiomate Mike Davis obsesses over thick block lettering and bright color patterns.

But for all the skill involved, art critics have sometimes approached rock posters with skepticism. Are they ads or art?

"People have mixed feelings about it and debate it all the time on the website," Hayes said. His position on the matter is obvious. "For some of these posters, there are only 50 of them in the world," he said. "And to have your hands on one of those is amazing."

The oversized book (11 by 14 inches) gives poster-art fans the chance to get their hands on some of that history. The pages are perforated, allowing people to tear out the pages and display them like posters. Hayes said it doesn't bother him knowing that some readers are going to rip his book apart.

"A lot of the posters in the book are sold out and hard to find," he said. "It's a really cheap way -- especially in this economy -- for people to decorate their walls."

Maybe the toughest part about publishing the book was cutting down the number of artists it features.

"There's over 8,000 designers on the site and I had to pick 101 to get in the book," he said. "The nice part is -- this is called 'Volume 1.'"

Tom Horgen • 612-673-7909