Cedar Lewisohn
The Seven Plagues of Seven Angels

‘And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.’ (Revelations 5:5)

The Seven Plagues of Seven Angels follows The Marduk Prophecy (2020) as Cedar Lewisohn’s second project for Slimvolume. If the publication’s title is a direct reference to the Book of Revelation – a biblical premonition of an end of time where numerous pestilences curse the earth – then Lewisohn translates this story into an intense contemporary allegory where pandemics, environmental catastrophe, an ongoing threat of nuclear Armageddon, and unmitigated multi-faceted apocalypse prevail.

Fascinated with the absolute strangeness of the Bible’s Bosch-like descriptions of characters covered in loathsome soars, alien lifeforms such as beasts with seven-heads and events that include those that describe the sea turning to blood, Lewisohn’s ‘primitive’ images – taken from reference points including African and Mesopotamian civilisations – are translated into an equally eerie image-led wordless comic book through the use of handmade woodcuts and lino prints. Depicted in red and white, the traditional colours of protest and anarchy, these oddities act as provocative representations that blur the line between human and otherworldly creatures. In essence, this work connects with contemporary culture and identity through depictions of people in states of psychosis in present-day London.

The Seven Plagues also holds a connection with reggae music, and with the fall of Babylon’s tropes of captivity, power structures, corrupt governments and unethical institutions seen in rebellion against the will of Jah (God). If the Book of Revelation focuses on the number seven – expounded through seven plague angels, seven bowls, a seven-headed dragon, seven seals, seven churches of Asia, and seven angelic trumpeters – then it’s notable to mention reggae tracks that do the same, including Culture’s ‘Two Seven’s Clash’ and Big Youth’s ‘Four Sevens’. Culture’s singer Joseph Hill has claimed that ‘Two Seven’s Clash’ was based on the political activist, publisher, black nationalist and pan-African Marcus Garvey’s prediction of chaos for Jamaica on 7 July 1977, when the ‘sevens’ met. With its cataclysmic message, the song created a stir in Garvey’s Caribbean homeland, with many businesses and schools closed for the day.

Importantly, the Book of Revelation was originally written in Aramaic before moving to infect the wider world with its Christian message. Similarly, Rastafarian culture (based on a messianic second coming denoted by Haile Selassie I’s rule in Ethiopia in the twentieth century), and Jamaican patois has become widely diffused, and continues to inform ideas around displacement, alienation, protest, liberation and redemption. In a newly-politicised highly-charged era, this artist’s book suggests that the utopian pursuit of the fall of Babylon continues in earnest.

Designed by Josh Daniels.

Softback, 22 pages, 143 colour illustrations, 180mm x 240mm.

First edition of 200 Risograph printed copies.

ISBN: 978-1-910516-21-8