The Afterlife: Hell
The fascination with life after death - the notion of transcendence of the soul - is one of the most curious aspects of the human condition. Gary Baseman explores the afterlife in his signature capricious and surreal style with depictions of the Four States of the Soul: Heaven, Hell, Purgatory, and Limbo. Baseman wittily sums it up: "In this one beautiful bittersweet life we live in on earth, we go through heaven, hell, purgatory, and limbo right here. These cuff links are a celebration of that. What wait for the afterlife?"
The beheaded maiden being devoured by the gatekeeper of the underworld depicts Hell as a place of eternal damnation where the soul is dismembered or subjected to excruciating pain.


