NOT FORGETTING WORDS

Like Wired, Ray Gun is one of those magazines which doesn't fit easily in any one place on the newsagents' shelves - shifting each month to a new section as the shopkeeper tries to work out whether it is a pop, leisure or even an arts publication. Claiming to be the 'Bible of Mus ic and Style', Ray Gun also herald the 'End of Print'. Inside, each ar ticle consists of text which is either blended into or superimposed on pictures. Disjointed paragraphs in a variety of typefaces - some of w hich are barely readable - are produced in a collage format. The overa ll effect is one of a desktop publishing system which has crashed, sen ding its contents to the laser printer in a random format. Despite the content being difficult to read it can be assumed - as it has reached issue 23 - that the magazine itself is read. Ray Gun's prediction of the end of print betrays its own belief in having discovered something new and exciting. Exciting it may be, but throughout the eighties art ists in Europe, in particular Wulf Rheinshagen of Germany, were produc ing work which now looks strikingly similar to the magazine pages desi gned by David Carson.