About the collection The AIDS Poster Collection consists of 625 posters from 44 countries including Australia , Austria , Canada , China (and Hong Kong ), Costa Rica , France , Germany , India , Japan , Luxembourg , Martinique , the Netherlands , New Zealand , Papua New Guinea , Poland , Portugal , Spain , Switzerland , Tahiti , Uganda , the United Kingdom , and the United States . The posters were issued by a variety of institutions and organizations to educate and warn people about AIDS and to offer advice and information in visual form. Some are more blunt and graphic than others, and they come in many styles. "The collection provides a fascinating insight into the many approaches that have been used to try to modify risk behaviors," said Roger Detels , MD, MS, UCLA professor of epidemiology and infectious diseases. "The posters range from terrifying to amusing and reflect the many cultures from which they have been drawn, which include national cultures and risk group cultures. The collection should be of interest to anyone interested in the history of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and attempts to control it." "The collection is incredibly rich," said David Gere , director of the Art|Global Health Center at UCLA . "You can see some of the best graphic interventions in global health, as well as some of the worst, but the important thing is that all 619 posters are readily available at the touch of a button, to be seen and studied by any researcher with access to the net." The physical collection, Collection No. 306 , was acquired by the History and Special Collections division of the Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library in 2005, and will be expanded through future acquisitions.