"NEVER HILLARY." This amazing bit of found poetry is actually the inescapable message of a large billboard set on a country road deep in the heart of Texas. It was captured by photographer Peter Granser during his recent exploration of the American state that has, over the last eight years, become synonymous with the conservative hegemony of George W. Bush. There can be no doubt who is not wanted here.

On the heels of his acclaimed first books, Sun City (2003) and Coney Island (2006), Granser's newest offering, Signs, draws a telling picture of life today in America. For it, Granser traveled 12,000 miles through the "republic" of Texas. With keen and objective precision, he focuses in his color photographs on the plethora of relics and signs that proliferate across the landscape and provide us with insights into the strange and contradictory state of contemporary American identity.