Wollongong in Posters: Art on a Telegraph Pole opened yesterday at the University of Wollongong library, showcasing work from the 1980s from Illawarra designers and artists.

Works in the collection range from 1982 to 2008, with artwork for theatre productions and films.

But the posters for unemployment protests, documentaries about striking miners and a conference on controversial Wollongong politician Rex Connor speak of a region in economic and political upheaval.

"These posters are a demonstration that Wollongong has a very lively and rich cultural history," said UOW graphic design lecturer Gregor Cullen. Mr Cullen contributed 16 pieces to the collection, under both the Culla Graffix and the Redback Graphix design firms.

"A lot of it was good timing [for artists], to be in a city that wanted to demonstrate it was alive and vibrant and creative."

Mr Cullen's work was made by hand, with each copy individually screenprinted.

He said Australia's 1980s poster art movement was studied worldwide for how it explored and interpreted cultural and economic shifts.

"Wollongong was an engine room of ideas in how to address technological change in the workplace," he said.

"There is enormous interest worldwide in that movement in Australia in the early 1980s. It's been studied and looked at because of the impact it had, and the quality of the work created."

Michael Organ, from the UOW library, said the exhibition highlighted how power, protest and art had been intertwined throughout Wollongong's history.

"It represents and encapsulates a time period with a major change in the Illawarra. The international recession, a major downturn in the steelworks and other major industries," he said.

"It shows the beginning of the end of Wollongong as an industrial centre."

Art on a Telegraph Pole is on show at the University of Wollongong library's Panizzi room until August 9.