Engler’s art is about keen observation and finding something transcendent. Engler’s dispatches sometimes read as passages from a very compelling dystopian science fiction novel, albeit they’re all too real. seem at once intimate yet kaleidoscopic.' and her portraits of players in the national drama. Engler captures the urgency of the summer’s protests. 'In electric, dynamic painting, and distinctive handwritten text, this diary is animated by Engler’s creative, associative mind.

That is why we remain, here to fight another day.' We can rely on A Diary of the Plague Year-the book reminds us that the human spirit is undaunted. of our darkest moments rendered with the whimsical sublimity you can only find in the illustrator’s hand.' Engler’s work will almost certainly stand alone in its effect, though, with its blend of gravitas and levity. ' A Diary of the Plague Year joins a shelf that’s sure to be crowded with reflections on one of the most tumultuous years in a century. Made in real time, Engler’s vibrant, immediate images recapture what it was like to live through 2020, bringing texture, feeling, and even charm to what we might not remember and what we will never forget. The result is a powerful visual record of an unprecedented time, collected in A Diary of the Plague Year, which follows the headlines from the first appearance of the coronavirus to the inauguration of President Joe Biden.

Other stories appeared, too: “Harvey Weinstein Sentenced,” “Ruth Bader Ginsburg Hospitalized,” “China Extends Control over Hong Kong,” and-on repeat-“Stock Market Plunges.” Day by day, Engler drew every shocking turn of the year: the police murder of George Floyd and protests around the globe a war against science and those who preached it fires consuming California a vicious election, absurdly contested. Was there ever such a year? Headlines about the death of Kobe Bryant and Donald Trump's impeachment began to give way to news of a mysterious virus in China, and Engler’s pages were quickly filled with the march of COVID-19: schools closing their doors, hospitals overflowing, graveyards full to capacity. But when Donald Trump was elected, the headlines turned too wild for her to stop the experiment. The idea was to create a pictorial record of one year of listening to the news. An extraordinary illustrated chronicle of 2020 that captures this indelible year in America in all its tragic, surreal, epic, and (sometimes) comedic intensityĪrtist Elise Engler set herself a task five years ago: to illustrate the first headline she heard on her bedside radio every morning.

A plague year