Inside the Abbatoir

Sue Coe doesn’t aim to please. The British-born artist, who moved to New York in 1972, says she is a “graphic witness” to the hidden sufferings that our lives of comfort and plenty are based on. Her intention is to challenge, to hold up a magnifying glass to the ugly, uncomfortable truths we’d rather ignore.

For the past 35 years Coe has been creating politically charged illustrations, prints, and paintings on subjects ranging from AIDS, to the criminal justice system, to class and gender issues, to animal cruelty. She calls herself a “visual journalist” and says her art is based on detailed research. She’s spent time with dying patients at AIDS wards, sat through night courts, and stood on the bloody kill-floors of slaughterhouses.