In the eterna-war on terror, can the Avengelist save us from the axis of evil? from the great Satan? from ourselves? Are we entering the age of unenlightenment? David Sandlin’s Ire-Town paintings and accompanying books The Avengelist and Wrathland highlight works from the past decade dealing with bellicosity and its attendant symptoms, fear and willful ignorance.

The show’s centerpiece is Sandlin’s triptych, Wrathland.. Ordered in the tradition of religious altarpieces depicting heaven, last judgment, and hell, each panel treats a different aspect of “the sleep of reason” with pun-packed images, painted in a style described by critic Nancy Princenthal, as a cross between Thomas Hart Benton and Mad Magazine.

Also included in the show are Sandlin’s recent large oil, Helluva World, part of his epic 2006 triptych, Oooh, My Son, All of This Is Yours, as well as drawings, silkscreened light boxes, and two artist’s books from Sandlin’s series, A Sinner’s Progress.

David Sandlin’s paintings, prints, and artist’s books have been exhibited in New York and around the world, and his drawings and comics have appeared in RAW, The Ganzfeld, Nozone, and many other publications. His book An Alphabetical Ballad of Carnality has just been published by Fantagraphics’ Blab! imprint, and his latest comic, Swamp Preacher, also published by Fantagraphics, will be in bookstores in December. Wonderfool World, a 158-page book cataloguing Sandlin’s art, was published this spring by the Butler Gallery, in Kilkenny, Ireland.