The Animals' Thankgiving (2009) by Sue Coe. As featured in Animal

A very beastly Thanksgiving

Is this the kind of feast the animal kingdom might stage if they rose to the top of the food chain?

Our new book Animal: Exploring the Zoological World includes many biologically accurate depictions of the world’s fauna, from the tiniest mite to the biggest of big cats. However, it also includes plenty of fanciful creations. Take this woodcut work by the British born, US based artist Sue Coe. It’s enough to put you off your turkey.

“The Animals’ Thanksgiving is a highly original, satirical, rather dark woodcut that essentially inverts the roles of humans and animals at a fantastical Thanksgiving dinner,” explains our book. “Organized horizontally in the tradition of the classical frieze, on which narrations of victory are often emblazoned in elegant and accessible narrative form, the vision of the Coe, attempts to develop an empathic bond with the viewer.”

 

Detail from The Animals' Thanksgiving (2009) by Sue Coe. As featured in Animal
Detail from The Animals' Thanksgiving (2009) by Sue Coe. As featured in Animal

Coe is an unapologetic advocate of animal rights, and, as our book says, “by reversing roles, she hopes to denormalize common practices such as eating meat in order to make her audience reconsider the violence that is inflicted on animals regularly.”

#Yet the woodcut’s gothic qualities bring something to the picture that even ardent meat eaters can enjoy. “Coe’s woodcuts and busy illustrations, which often recall medieval aesthetics, use traditional techniques to invite the viewer’s attention – and then question their values regarding animal life in a consumerist society.”

 

Animal: Exploring the Zoological World
Animal: Exploring the Zoological World

For more on Coe’s work order a copy of Animal: Exploring the ZoologicalWorld. For more on meat-free eating, get Vegan, and for a more traditional take on Thanksgiving, try America: The Cookbook.