Life — February 21, 1924 — page 13: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

This cartoon satirizes modern interior design and architecture. Satan (identified by horns and tail) shows a Hard-boiled Sinner around an elaborately decorated, maze-like interior space with ornate arches and decorative elements. Satan boasts they've "done over" the place "in the modern manner," while the Hard-boiled Sinner responds that "it looks like hell to me." The joke plays on a double meaning: the sinner, despite being in actual Hell with Satan, finds the trendy "modern" architectural style so ugly and chaotic that it's hellish. This mocks the contemporary modernist or art deco design movement, suggesting that avant-garde aesthetics—however fashionable—produce visually chaotic, unpleasant spaces. The cartoon criticizes pretentious modern design as worse than actual damnation.