If art is all about beauty and a thing of beauty is a joy for ever, why then do we also believe that creative ecstasy must be agony to the genius? How is it that the ugly, violent and shocking now seem to dominate the visual arts? And, most disturbingly, why do we seem to get such pleasure out of representations of cruelty and pain? These are the big issues behind Nigel Spi-vey's unsettling book, all flagged by the clever pun of his title.
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