The Mousetrap

Untitled (The Mousetrap...)
Raymond Pettibon
1986, Pen and Ink on Paper

This piece is typical of Pettibon's work in both its minimalist black and white composition and its use of the interplay between image and text. Beginning his art career as the illustrator of several Black Flag album covers, as well as designing the group's logo, Pettibon's work was not seriously considered until the early 1990s. The words "The Mousetrap/ The Mice Are As Big As Rats/ To Build A Better Mousetrap," juxtaposed against the silhouetted city-scape suggests the dystopian status of modern urbanity. Though, as always with Pettibon's work, the exact meaning of the lines is left up to their reader, the mousetrap imagery seems to suggest the failure of the American dream and the all-consuming nature of consumerism.