Earth Inferno

About this book

A curtain parts to reveal an inferno made from the faces and bodies of everyday life. Faces crowd into masks, bodies twist together and a young artist places his own portrait among images that refuse easy explanation.

Austin Osman Spare's early illustrated work brings together drawings, poems, captions and symbolic designs. Mirrors, candles, contorted figures and his own portrait recur across the pages. The images have the intensity of a private nightmare, with the same shapes returning until they seem to form a language of their own.