Hell. The people and places

128 pages
Edited by Steven Heller and Seymour Chwast
14.5 x 21 cm
Language: English
Hardback
Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press
2022

Whether it is a real place, a human construct, an idea or a superstition, hell holds a place of honour in cultures and religions throughout the ages. There are many different hells to be found, and each one is distressing in its own way. But they all share the same essence: 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 designers: Steven Heller and Seymour Chwast. And like Dante in the footsteps of Virgil, they will be able to navigate their way through the most burning (or icy!) dark realms that lurk in the heart of the human imagination: the Jewish Geenna, the Sunni Jahannam, the Swahili hell, the Mayan myth of Xibalbá and many others, not forgetting, of course, Dante's inferno and all the characters who have created hell, visited it or been involved in more or less fortunate descents into it.

The aim is to discover how many of these places of damnation exist or have existed in the extra-dimensional and inter-spiritual worlds that so influence the mind and body. Because in the human mind, hell eludes all understanding, but appears unequivocally real.