Margins
Hell book cover
Hell
The People and Places
2023
First Published
3.11
Average Rating
121
Number of Pages

A descent into discovering different versions of hell and its realms of torture around the world across literature, religions, culture, and folklore, gorgeously illustrated and accompanied by writing on the origins and details of each hell. Whether it's a real place, a human construct, an idea, or a superstition, hell is a grotesque demimonde in literature, cultures, religions, and folklore throughout the ages. There are many different hells to be found, each one distressing in its own way. But they all share the same they are terrible places guarded by one or more evil spirits, where punishment is split into various levels of damnation. Those who wish to venture on this dangerous journey beyond the gates of the underworld will find their guide in two extraordinary authors and graphic Steven Heller and Seymour Chwast. And like Dante in the footsteps of Virgil, they will be able to navigate their way through the burning (or icy!) dark realms that lurk in the heart of the human imagination—the Jewish Gehenna, the Sunni Jahannam, the Swahili hell, the Mayan myth of Xibalbá, and many others—as well as all the characters who have created hell, visited it, or been involved in more or less fortunate descents into it. Equally appealing to fans of the literary hellscape of Dante's Inferno, the bright utopia of The Good Place, and the dark humor of Edward Gorey, Hell offers a feast of chillingly hilarious graphic art and illuminating content that comprehensively plumbs the multiple depths of the underworld.

Avg Rating
3.11
Number of Ratings
70
5 STARS
4%
4 STARS
26%
3 STARS
54%
2 STARS
9%
1 STARS
7%
goodreads

Authors

Steven Heller
Steven Heller
Author · 81 books
Steven Heller writes a monthly column on graphic design books for The New York Times Book Review and is co-chair of MFA Design at the School of Visual Arts. He has written more than 100 books on graphic design, illustration and political art, including Paul Rand, Merz to Emigre and Beyond: Avant Garde Magazine Design of the Twentieth Century, Design Literacy: Understanding Graphic Design Second Edition, Handwritten: Expressive Lettering in the Digital Age, Graphic Design History, Citizen Designer, Seymour Chwast: The Left Handed Designer, The Push Pin Graphic: Twenty Five Years of Design and Illustration, Stylepedia: A Guide to Graphic Design Mannerisms, Quirks, and Conceits, The Anatomy of Design: Uncovering the Influences and Inspirations in Modern Graphic Design. He edits VOICE: The AIGA Online Journal of Graphic Design, and writes for Baseline, Design Observer, Eye, Grafik, I.D., Metropolis, Print, and Step. Steven is the recipient of the Art Directors Club Special Educators Award, the AIGA Medal for Lifetime Achievement, and the School of Visual Arts' Masters Series Award.
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