Produced in the first century of massive military industrialization, images of monsters of human design depict machines that magnify not the productive or constructive, but the destructive potential of humanity. They show frightening inhuman instruments of violence devised by human villains. This includes representations of Frankenstein-esque projects to engineer humanoid beings, images that express dystopian anxieties about a post-human future. New technologies for mass communication are depicted as weapons of mass manipulation used to spread lies and disinformation, for hypnotizing the masses with false realities. Although these technologies were used by all the major powers, in these images their moral value is determined by the identity of the deployer. Technology perceived as critical for one’s own survival and defense becomes a monstrous instrument of destruction in the hands of the enemy.

Untitled, undated, (circa 1943-45)

U.S. Office of War Information

United States

This image shows Hitler and Mussolini in the role of Dr. Frankenstein working to engineer a giant humanoid fighting machine. In addition to dehumanizing the infantry of the Axis Powers, the image may have been intended to reassure an American audience that the enemies’ war effort was failing. They appear to be struggling to revive a dying army by cobbling together a war machine from a hodgepodge of mismatched, damaged material.

ელექტრონის ახალი გამოყენება

(A New Use for the Electron), 1934

ს. ნადარეიშვილის (Samson Dmitrievich Nadareishvili) (1895 – 1977)

ნიანგი (Crocodile), № 11, 1934

Georgia, Georgian

In the propaganda war in the ramp-up to World War II, this work presents a sinister image of mechanized, industrialized mass communication: a machine in the shape of a giant human head with a tongue several feet long. The caption reads: “An automaton powered by the electron! So much more energy-efficient than humans, and an infinite capacity for constant speech.”

So macht man’s!

(Ah, so that’s how they do it!), 1915

Adolf Hengeler (1863-1927)

Aus einem Tagebuch 1914/15 Adolf. Hengeler" Munich: Verlag C. Schnell, 1915

Germany, German

In this image protesting a purported anti-German propaganda campaign funded by England and France, Michael the German, a figure representing the German nation, marvels as an English and a French soldier pour bags of gold into a monstrous printing press that spews slanderous anti-German journalism.

Moloch, undated

Harry S. Bressler (1893-)

United States

The figure Moloch has a long and complex history in both Western pagan and Judeo-Christian iconography. A throughline of the figure’s identity across these traditions is that of a voracious entity exacting extreme sacrifice from its human victims. Here the machinery of massive iron jaws of a hybrid between Hitler and a steam shovel crushes and devours civilization, represented by steepled and neoclassical architecture. The figure is reminiscent of the insatiable giant-tyrants found elsewhere in this exhibition.

Civilization’s Scourge, 1940

Harry S. Bressler (1893-)

United States

Large-scale use of paratroopers was a technological innovation of World War II. Here the swastika-shaped humanoid menace trailed by a parachute — just dropped from an airplane — is many orders of magnitude larger than the human figures on the ground, emphasizing the monstrosity of this hybrid human-machine form of violence.

Untitled, 1925

Artist unknown

ნიანგი (Crocodile), № 12 — (15) 1925

Georgia, Georgian

This image, produced in the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic, shows a plump, tuxedoed male figure–a common visual trope for capitalists and industrialists–blaring a hymn to capitalism through a gramophone horn in the shape of an enormous human mouth. Proponents of Social Democracy–a more moderate branch of Socialism that advocated cooperation with private capital and industry–-have come under the music’s spell and dance mindlessly as hardline Bolshevik Communists look on, laughing at their gullible susceptibility to manipulation by capitalist propaganda.

Untitled, 1935

Artist unknown

ნიანგი (Crocodile), № 6 1935

Georgia, Georgian

In the early twentieth century, hardline Communists accused more moderate Social Democrats of naïve cooperation with private capital and industry, and ultimately of unwittingly abetting the enemies of Socialism – the ascendent fascist nationalist powers in Europe. Here an overfed cynical capitalist uses the new gramophone machine to spread the propaganda of the Second International (international Social-Democratic organization) and further his own agenda. A Nazi needle transmits messages to a loudspeaker in the shape of a human face with the letters SD in its eyes.

Mit Gott und der Technik, Fordere ich die Schopfung in Meine Schranken

(Arm in arm with God and technology, we challenge creation to our limits!), 1917

Fritz Grareis (1872-1925)

Die Muskete, March, 29 1917

Austria, German

In this foreboding image, a man sits atop the globe pointing a gun directly at the reader while he holds a cross, conveying the idea that the combination of religious zeal and industrial warfare will lead to doom for humanity.

იტალიული ვეშაპი

(Italian Whale), 1939

მიხ. ოთაროვი (Mikheil Otarov) (dates unknown)

ნიანგი (Crocodile), № 8 1939

Georgia, Georgian

The “Italian whale” in this image is a hybrid between Benito Mussolini and a submarine. The caption suggests that this Fascist-imperialist monster has just broken its teeth trying to bite off the land mass labeled as “Balkans.” Fascist Italy did in fact successfully annex Albania in 1939.

Die Wiederaufrichtung des Zarentums

(The Restoration of Tsardom), 1918

Fritz Schönpflug (1873-1951)

Die Muskete, September 12, 1918, Nr. 676, cover

This image protests undue American intervention in the Russian Civil War that followed the 1917 Bolshevik revolution. Germany had fought against Russia in World War I and supported the Bolshevik revolution’s efforts to overthrow the Russian monarchy. American forces landed in northwestern Russia on September 4 in hopes of securing arms for the White Russian Army that was battling the Bolsheviks. Here a tank, designed to look like American president Woodrow Wilson wearing the Russian crown, has been tasked with restoring the Russian monarchy.

Der erste englische Über-Dreadnought der Wüste

(The first English desert uber-dreadnought), 1914

Hans Strohofer (1885-1961)

Die Muskete, December 31, 1914, vol. 19, Nr. 483, page 109

Austria, German

This image was published early into World War I, which might explain the light humor. At the time, England had the world’s largest navy, far outclassing Austro-Hungary’s. Here Hans Strohofer imagines that the English have developed a dreadnought-class desert “ship” – a giant camel in a knight’s suit of armor with gun turrets mounted on its humps.

Untitled, undated (circa 2006-2009)

Asamblea de Artistas Revolucionarios de Oaxaca (ASARO)

Mexico

In this one example from the early twenty-first century, the mechanized monstrosity of state violence is represented by the outsize human skull-helicopter that looms over the terrified human family. ASARO was an activist-artist collective convened in response to state violence used to repress the Oaxaca, Mexico teachers’ strike of 2006. During these events, the army used helicopters to drop chemicals on peaceful protesters.