Artist Emily Johns invited artists and poets to respond to Adam Hochschild’s book To End All Wars for a travelling exhibition, ‘The World Is My Country’ – a visual celebration of the people and events that opposed the First World War.
One of the posters, by Emily Johns herself, features Alice Wheeldon and aspects of her life. The lion-tamer imagery calls up Alice’s friend John S. Clarke, who was, among many other things, a lion-tamer. Later a well-known socialist editor, he gave the eulogy at her graveside in 1919, where he condemned this ‘judicial murder’. ‘The world is my country’ was an important saying for Alice, who used it in signing off her last letter from prison before the trial. The reference is actually a common misquotation of Thomas Paine Rights of Man: Part the Second (George Kline, Carlisle, 1792), p.62, ‘…my country is the world, and my religion is to do good.’
Poster #3: Alice Wheeldon was a prophet
Poet Anna Robinson responded with ‘Sketches for Alice Wheeldon and her daughters and gaolers’
Find out more about The World Is My Country project.
The set of posters and poems, with text and references, are also compiled in a book by Emily Johns and Gabriel Carlyle, published by Peace News Press, ISBN 978-1-904527-18-3. [Available from the Peace News website]