The Spanish postcards from the Franco era are watercolours of armed soldiers with their doll-like partners in romantic poses. The Boss cards show couples modelling clothes against a grey volcanic beach landscape. Some of the images feature the models covering their faces with cloth so that they appear to be anonymous and blindfolded, or terrorists and their victims; one leather coat design closely resembles those worn by the German Lufwaffe in WW2. The title makes reference to the Barbie doll, the first child's toy to be developed with an adult female body in America of the 1960's. Later, Barbie's partner, a male doll named Ken, came onto the market. Claus Barbie, known as the Butcher of Lyon, was a notorious mass murderer, a war criminal of the Third Reich.

Tanya Ury