#death-

deathgod + deathgoddess + deathdeity + deathgoddex

[IMAGE ID: four rectangular flags, each with horizontal lines that vary between being straight and wavy. all of the colors are different shades of dull purple, dull green, dull teal, and cool grey. there is a complicated symbol in the middle. END ID.]

deathgod: a gender relating to, or influenced by, death and being a god, being a death god, or a god of death.

deathgoddess: a gender relating to, or influenced by, death and being a goddess, being a death goddess, or a goddess of death.

deathdeity: a gender relating to, or influenced by, death and being a deity, being a death deity, or a deity of death.

He's kind of an asshole, when you think about it.

“Amen.

The irony of the design for Richmond Lattimore’s The New Testament is that I owe its existence to Michael Ian Kaye, who has been cited more than once as my “greatest rival” in the “world of book jackets”. No such rivalry exists, and when Michael was art director as Farrar, Straus & Giroux he gave me the commission of a lifetime. I had said in Interview magazine that one jacket I always wanted to design for was the bible, and now here was my chance. I was told that this was not a text for churches but readers, and to treat it like a novel. When I came upon Andres Serrano’s The Morgue (Hacked to Dead II) in the pages of Colors magazine (Tibor Kalman’s last issue as art director), I knew it was perfect: here was a face looking at and reflecting death and life simultaneously. It was horrifying and beautiful, compelling and repulsive. I also knew it would be considered far too shocking and never get approved in a million years. But I had to try, and to my amazement the editors not only got it, but with Michael’s encouragement they championed it.

Then all hell broke loose.

Once the book was published with this image, no religious bookstore would carry it, and neither would any of the national chains. I can only presume this was due to the “guilt by association” with Serrano’s Piss Christ (see the cover of Blasphemy), which is completely insane. And a disaster for the publisher. With not place to sell the book, it naturally didn’t sell. There was publicity, but none of it good. The only one to benefit from the whole thing was me--the jacket won every design competition extant. But where I may have triumphed aesthetically, as a practical advocate for the book itself I completely failed.

For the paperback, the publisher went with a very tame and pretty shot of a crucifix. I can’t say I blame them. It was an object lesson in “It’s not what you show, it’s how you show it.” And, perhaps, who shows it. Certainly years later Mel Gibson depicted far more graphic imagery to make the same point on film, but because his intent was perceived as sincere it was embraced by a mass audience. Serrano’s intent in all his work, by the way, is no less heartfelt and devout.