Spot the Difference

This hand-made pack of thin paper stuck on thin card consists of 38 cards which caricature all aspects of life in the former Soviet Union. They were published in 1998-1999 in the paper Razvlekatel’naia Gazetka [Entertaining Newspaper] by Aleksandr Lutkovskii. The pack was published in only 60 copies, and uniquely each individual card is a “spot-the-difference” game where one has to identify seven differences between the upper and lower half of the card.

“In 1998-1999, in a newspaper I published, I decided to print a deck of playing cards, 1 card in each issue of the newspaper. The deck was printed "from the wheels" when 1 card began to print; many others were not yet drawn. Each card has its own author, all cards were drawn by cartoonists from different parts of the former USSR, so some of the cards have a humorous connotation. Many artists drew several options for cards, some drew colour options. When the deck was released, I did not use the Internet yet and did not know that there are similar decks where each card has its own author, but so far I have not seen a deck in which both halves of the card have 7 differences. In total, 60 copies of such decks were cut and collected. Most of which are already stored in different collections around the world” - Aleksandr Lutkovskii.

Above: Spot the Difference playing cards published in "Gazetka" newspaper by Aleksandr Lutkovskii, 1998-1999.