The art of Gee Vaucher is eternally linked with UK anarcho punk pioneers Crass, the politically charged art collective who railed against the establishment and the domineering Thatcher led Conservative government of the 1970s and 80s. Vaucher’s stencilled slogans and stark black and white imagery, filling the covers of the seven albums and various singles that Crass released during their existence, were an integral part of the group’s active protest – a visual focal point that made them immediately identifiable. Her work spans photography, painting, sculpture, film and performance, but it’s the collages she created for Crass under the pseudonym G Sus that endure, and these have now been assembled as part of The Crassical Collection, a new edition of the group’s recordings which feature new artwork from Vaucher. Below, fellow artist Savage Pencil talks to Vaucher about her work.

I have always been intrigued by the image on the back cover of The Feeding Of The 5000, the lone figure tramping across a ploughed field, weighed down with a giant Crass flag on their shoulder. A sense of loneliness and desolation is very prominent in that particular image, and I wondered if you were in a similar frame of mind when you were working on it?

Definitely not. The image on the back cover of Feeding is in fact one of many that I took as we played up on the field by Dial House, we were all having a bit of a laugh. It was anything but lonely and desolate at the time. If I was to take on the essence of what I was trying to understand with everything I do, I think I would be in my grave by now! So much of what I did and still do is, what you might say, heavyweight. But because it is and I feel strongly about the subject, I have to remove myself to get to what I am trying to say. That sounds contradictory I know, but it’s the best way I can explain it. Viewing it through your eyes it can look lonely, maybe what we had taken on as Crass meant we were probably alone in the music world? It was not something that was on my mind at the time and certainly not something we had a problem with, but many did.

Could you talk me through the various ideas you were having at the time you were creating it?

As always when starting a new piece of work for a record cover, I had to have the words first. From these and conversations, I would get an idea of how to illustrate and design the cover. I never really had a clear idea to work to, one image would immediately come into mind, then I would play around with adding certain elements. In the end, I always relied on a feeling, and that it was saying what I wanted it to say, even if I did not know what that was exactly. Getting a new idea together for the cover always took much longer than the actual painting.

Also, what do you think about flags in general and how they are used?

Well, as flags go, some I like and are inclusive, but most are for nations; exclusive and consequently edging towards nationalism and all the negative things that that can mean. Mostly when people think of flags their only thought is of that flag representing a country, a movement, but they rarely have an idea of the blood and oppression they can represent. I’ve actually thought about painting out the Crass flag on the Feeding album cover, I don’t really like it, I find it a bit odd and unnecessary.

I love bunting.

The cover photo of Stations Of The Crass shows a wall at Bond Street tube station in London covered with Crass related graffiti. In 1978, this was considered to be just a form of vandalism, but today it could probably be viewed, quite rightly, as a piece of street art. What are your feelings about today’s street art and how effective do you think it is as a way of communicating a specific message or cause?

Well, I love a lot of graffiti, it rightly gives people a space to voice and view their opinions, realisations etc. Of course, not all of it will be to one’s liking, especially those that cross the line into hate and discrimination. But you have to let it all go into the mix and let the people work it out, either by covering it up or adding a comment.

Graffiti is such an ancient way of the people voicing an opinion whether it’s “I love Joe” or “Boris [Johnson] is a wanker”. There have been some incredible words and images shared and long may it continue.

The biggest problem is how and where. If you want people to get past the ‘vandalism’ bit, I think it’s important how you approach what you want to say and where you want to put it. Most people don’t want mindless scrawl over their buildings. If you want people to stop, look, consider and think, I think it’s important to approach it with thought, make it part of what you want to say, so there is a chance of getting past the knee jerk reaction. Obviously, the prime example of that has been Banksy – trouble is, it’s gone beyond what he is trying to say and has now become someone’s ‘millionaire’ dream, a photo opportunity. He can’t stop that, it’s now a commodity.

I love the fact that the word graffiti means scratch in Italian, and if you have ever been to Pompeii you see a lot of graffiti, a lot of scratching on walls, insults, declarations of love, political accusations etc, thousands covering the streets. Some are really funny. One of them has a drawing of a dick and next to it it says “handle with care”. Nothing changes much.

Penis Envy is my favourite Crass album, and the image that first attracted me when I saw it was the inner collage of a bound couple screaming at each other in front of an explosion of tabloid news cuttings and comic panel fragments. It reminded me slightly of a Ralph Steadman cartoon, only more complex and multilayered. As collage (and photomontage) features heavily throughout your work, could you tell me what initially attracted you to the medium and how you work with it today?

I like those illustrations too. These are collage mixed with a little painting.

First of all, I never did much photo montage, most of the Crass stuff is painted. It’s very fine, detailed work using black gouache. I started painting this way to force people to look. When you see the originals that is exactly what you do, it draws you into looking closely at a subject that is sometimes hard to look at. I don’t really work this way any more, partly because I was beginning to feel restricted and eventually, because I didn’t have the eyes for it.

As far as collage goes, I first started having a go when I was living and working in New York and having to meet very tight deadlines. I was doing fine painting even then, which is what the jobs wanted, but it was impossible to deliver on time even if I worked all night. So, reconsidering my attitude to collage, which to me had always felt like cheating, I decided that the only way I was going to get the work done, was to ‘cheat’. My first effort was a combination of painting with bits of collage. It was a small piece for The New York Times due in the next morning. I’d grabbed some magazines off the street and had a great time experimenting and then, worried that it might not be accepted, and they used it with no questions asked!

Nearly 50 years on I’m still at it and I still get a thrill from the possibilities, cheating it is definitely not, but an art form of its own. I’ve been working for some time on a series of collages for seven books, one for each day of the week. The books are based on RD Laing’s Knots and Max Ernst’s Une Semaine De Bonté. They are very different from previous collages, all black and white.

As an underground cartoonist, I would be curious to know if you have any interest in comics at all.

As for comics, I have to admit I’m not a great fan, though I have enjoyed a couple of graphic novels.

In my opinion the poster that accompanies Christ The Album is one of your finest collages. It looks like you really enjoyed creating it, bringing together the various visual elements from previous albums and splaying them out on a single canvas. In a way it looks like a celebration of Crass’s collective political philosophy, but was that what you intended it to be?

It’s strange isn’t it? I really don’t like this piece much, I like elements of it, but I think it’s too over worked, too much crammed in and, for me, confusing. This piece is not a collage but one of the biggest painted pieces, just a few bits of collage on the ground which I couldn’t be arsed to paint. As to a celebration piece, I never saw it like that. As I’ve said I always worked on a new album knowing what the words and the overall feeling was that we were trying to put over. That was always the thing that guided me towards how to illustrate the project and it wasn’t telling me to make this a celebratory piece. It’s always so interesting to me how people can view my work so differently.

I was fortunate to work with a group of friends who always trusted and left me to come up with what I felt was right. No one interfered with the process and everyone saw the piece when it was finally finished. I could not have worked any other way.

For Yes Sir, I Will, the inner photo and caption lifted from The Sun newspaper – from a conversation between the Prince Of Wales and injured Falklands War veteran Simon Weston – gave a title making direct comment on the Thatcherite press and the class system. What do you now think about using a single image taken from its context and bouncing it back in a different format?

I think about a single image the same way as I did then. If I think an image is not telling the whole truth, hiding the bits that count or lends itself to be taken in another direction or further along in the same direction, I use it.

In the digital age of visual overload, are there fewer single defining images?

No, I don’t think so at all. You just have to look deeper, think deeper, if you are to bypass the obvious and get the message home. Creativity, as you know, is about invention, thinking outside the box, yours or society’s. There is much more than there has ever been to use out there. The challenge is yours to choose how, as always.

I presume that the poster accompanying 10 Notes On A Summer’s Day: The Swansong – a photo of a clear blue sky and a path through a crop field – was taken in the Essex countryside where you live. How influential are your surroundings to your art and is communing with the natural world a source of inspiration?

You’re right, the photo was actually taken on the same field as the original Feeding photo was taken so long ago. Yes, living in the countryside, gardening, walking, is where I think best. My home is an extension of everything I do.

The Best Before 1984 collection contains one of your most famous images, a gouache collage depicting The Queen, Pope John Paul II, the Justice statue and Margaret Thatcher dressed in punk attire and lounging against a wall. It’s Banksy before Banksy, but how was it received at the time?

Well, I seem to remember we had a few irate punks who thought that what we had done with the iconic photo of The Pistols was sacrilegious. But, it was done at a time when I think quite a few people realised that The Sex Pistols had “died” and left them nothing but “no future”. It was a comment, a joke piece that seems to have become something else over time.

Also, I have to ask, what was the origin of the “CUMONEN!” cartoon panel on the cover of the Rival Tribal Rebel Rebel flexi?

It was a drawing by Steve Ignorant. It came about because, at the time, we were practically the only band letting skinheads into gigs. As always, once inside, they tried to dominate a space at the front of the stage, and find a break in the music so they could Sieg Heil. There was never any fighting, just their arm-swinging dance to intimidate and always waiting for the chance to chant. My experience of the skinheads was mainly friendly. It seemed that most of them liked the way skins dressed better than the way punks did, so joined that gang. I certainly never felt they were seriously right wing at the time, they were just a pain in the arse at gigs, but welcome.

Finally, when the latest edition of The Crassical Collection is spread out before you, how does it compare with the work you are doing today?

Comparison is a strange word. I can’t really compare my work from one stage to the next as they are all linked. I suppose visually you could compare, but in essence everything springs from the same interest, fascination and care. Really, I have always done my best at whatever stage my work has been at, that’s all.

I love what I did for the original covers and I love what I did for The Crassical Collection, like Penny [Rimbaud of Crass] and his writing, we tried to reach out to a new generation of young people. I found the old black and white Crass covers were definitely looking like they were from a different era! This digital age is a challenge on many levels for those that were born before it, and I tried to find a way of doing the new work for the collection that embraced the new language and did not lose the essence and passion of Crass. I love how everything was finished and presented, I think The Crassical Collection is a beautiful piece of work that is a joy to look at, absorband is I think, accessible to all.