101 Torments of Hell + 1

‘They who claimed moral authority’, picturing two men up a pole each with a demon shoving a stick up their arse, describes frame 15 of 101 Torments of Hell (2024), a large screenprint by Malcolm Le Smith. The work definitely has elements of darkness, though it bears elements of other types of humour too: tongue-in-cheek, absurdist, dry, slapstick, sarcastic, et cetera. Above all it is unabashedly wicked across its 101 cartoon frames, partly due to its overarching subject: sins and their corresponding sometimes mischievous sometimes cruel punishments and torments in hell. The wickedness of the humour also lies in Le Smith’s delivery—his imagery and aesthetic—and that one finds humour in these torments at all.