Pure Evil - Les Fleurs Du Mal - In girum imus nocte et consumimur igni

71 x 55.5cm

Ink on and acrylic on screeenprint

gloss ink on white plike paper with handfinishing 

Originally Produced as a large ink on canvas artwork in 2005, made into a screenprint in 2006 and handfinished in isolation in 2020

The palindromic Latin riddle "In girum imus nocte et consumimur igni" ("we go in a circle at night and are consumed by fire") describes the behaviour of moths.

A 2005 update by Pure Evil of Felicien Rops' engraving for the frontispiece of Les Épaves, a collection of incidental verse by Baudelaire which would include the six censored poems from the 1857 edition of Les Fleurs du mal. Les Épaves was finally published in 1866 with the Rops frontispiece illustrating the complex iconographic programme elaborated by Baudelaire. It depicts a skeleton, symbolising the tree of good and evil, in whose feet grow flowers representing the seven deadly sins. Angels and cherubs are flying high above around a medallion of the poet carried away by a chimera.

In the pure evil version there is a medallion at the bottom of the picture depicting a dodo with the latin phrase 'NON GRATUM ANUS RODENTUM' meaning 'NOT WORTH A RATS ARSE'