Edition of 75/$35
18x24 3 color screenprint
Printed by VG Kids
Well we have reached the end of the series and what better way to do so by representing the true gateway drug, Alcohol and it's propaganda film "The Road to Ruin". Released in 1934, the film tells a tale of a young woman who gets in with the wrong crowd, and begins the journey down the spiral of booze, drugs and sex and ends up an alcoholic, pregnant, and is forced to get an abortion.
Taboos abound, the film of course was boycotted by the catholic church which forced massive edits. For the time, it was quite salacious but of course, overly dramatic and too campy to be taken seriously. Worse than a after school special. But it has it's points.
With this poster I wanted to finish up the whole "See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil" undertone I began with both Reefer Madness and Cocaine fiends. Here, we have the demon emerging from her glass of devil's brew, throwing red rose petals into the poor girl's face. The action is aggressive, contrasting the lighter giving of the single flower on Reefer Madness. A nice representation of the effect Alcohol plays on us. It lures us in under false comfort, pretending it loves us ( red roses), comforts us in times of peril and weakness. While some become happy, some become violent, and some become completely different people, almost possessed. It leaves us miserable, in pain and sick. Yet we go right back to it. Until a different rose is offered. But the same demon remains.
But is the demon really in the liquid or already inside of us."
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