Humanised phobias.

I started looking to artists who had used phobias in their work to understand how I can add them to my humanised versions of the torture devices, I came across these pieces by artist John Plato Vassocopoulo

1931’s Phobia was created with the assistance of noted psychoanalyst Henry Stack Sullivan, after a friend of the illustrator had a nervous breakdown. The first lines of the book began with “I must began by apologizing. I am not a psychiatrist”. Yet, despite the unconventional depictions of man’s fear, the limited edition publication became a turning point in John Vassos career. He never published another book of illustrations, but his further years, spent doing works of graphic, industrial design and occasional artpieces, had a conceptual basis on that series of 24 plates. 

The author of  Codex 99, the blog that originally published the following images, describe Vassos’s depiction of Mechanophobia (fear of machinery) in this way: “The illustration – part art nouveau, part art deco and part German expressionism – shows not only a terror of machines but captures more generally the growing unease with the urbanism and industrialization of the early 20th century (a recurrent theme in much of Vassos’ work)".

The illustrations were printed using the Knudson lithographic process, patented in 1915 by the Danish Hugo Knudson and a direct fore- runner of the modern halftone.

Mechanophobia (fear of machinery)

 

Acrophobia – fear of high places

Claustrophobia – fear of enclosed spaces

Astrophobia – fear of storms

Zoophobia – fear of animals

Potamophobia – fear of running water

Climacophobia – fear of falling down stairs

Batophobia – fear of falling objects

Dromophobia – fear of crossing the street

Monophobia – fear of being alone

Phagophobia – fear of swallowing

Syphilophobia – fear of syphilis

Pantophobia – fear of everything

Aichmophobia - fear of Sharp and Pointed Objects

I found these rather chilling, the greyscale adds to the mood and each piece depicts each phobia really well. In particular the claustrophobia image, the feeling of tightness is obvious. Aichmophobia is also really well done. The bodies being pierced with the scissors and the fencing combined with the lack of facial expression is really creepy.