PANDEMONIUM

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Coined by John Milton (1608-1674) to name the home Satan created for his feverish and crazed minions when he was cast down from Heaven in Paradise Lost, pandemonium today is defined as panicked confusion. With this exotic etymology, images of fire, panic, and the phrase "out of the frying pan and into the fire" came to mind. I found a frying pan to which I attached the colorful mismatched letters of pandemonium, helping to express its explosive, disjointed purpose. I wanted the word to help give focus and identity to the pan’s central role in the assemblage. To express panic I turned to favorite cartoonists whose humor was more physical than intellectual. Placing Milton at the top followed below by the frying pan and a traffic arrow pointing down gave me my Heaven and Hell.