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Sue Coe (born 1951) is an English artist and illustrator, currently working from upstate New York. Her work is highly political, and part of her activism. Having grown up next to a slaughterhouse, she has been particularly involved in trying to stop the animal cruelty that takes places hidden behind its walls. Her work is often directed against capitalism, focusing on issues like sweatshops, prisons, AIDS and war.
She uses a realistic drawing style, sketching what she sees in slaughterhouses, prisons and sweatshops – having developed strategies for getting permission to draw and talk to people there. These sketches are then used as developed drawings in charcoal and other media, painting and printmaking, often published as illustrated books and comics. Her illustrations have appeared in a wide variety of publications, including The New York Times, The New Yorker, and The Nation.
She is an artist I want to study more for insights into political illustration, particularly ways of portraying very upsetting situations and linking striking imagery with activism.
Selected bibliography from Wikipedia
- How to Commit Suicide in South Africa (with Holly Metz). (1984) Random House. ISBN 0-394-62024-0
- X (with Judith Moore). (1986) RAW Books. ISBN 1-56584-032-1
- Meat: Animals and Industry (with Mandy Coe). (1991) Gallerie Publications. ISBN 0-9693361-6-0
- Dead Meat. (1996) Four Walls Eight Windows. ISBN 1-56858-041-X
- Pit’s Letter. (2000) Four Walls Eight Windows. ISBN 1-56858-163-7
- Bully!: Master of the Global Merry-Go-Round (with Judith Brody). (2004) Four Walls Eight Windows. ISBN 1-56858-323-0
- Sheep of Fools (with Judith Brody). (2005) Fantagraphics Books. ISBN 1-56097-660-8
- Cruel: Bearing Witness to Animal Exploitation. (2012) OR Books. ISBN 978-1-935928-72-0
- The Ghosts of our Meat (with Stephen Eisenman (Author), Phillip Earenfight (Editor)). (2014) ISBN 9780982615669
- The Animals’ Vegan Manifesto. (2017) OR Books. ISBN 978-1-682190-74-6