Looking at the world through posters

FOR French artist Jacques Villegle, collecting posters is more than just a hobby - it's an art form. In fact, it's the art form by which he has made a living and a reputation for himself.

Of course, unlike most people who collect movie or comicbook posters, Villegle is a little more off-book. He tears entire layers of posters off the streets of Paris and puts them onto a canvas - at least that's what he did between the years 1948 and 2000, before his advanced age made it too difficult to carry out the task.

"It's a collective appropriation," says the 88-year-old artist, who was born in Quimper, France, but lives and works in Paris. "(The posters) belong to everybody who passes by them on the street . . . I just re-appropriate something that already exists, by bringing it into the world of art."