Literary works of art

Few writers lend themselves so easily to the feverish imaginings of artists as Edgar Allan Poe. Artist and writer Harland Miller, who acknowledges his own debt to the American writer of Gothic chillers, obviously thinks so too, for he has invited artists to contribute artworks inspired by his short stories.

But as Poe’s cult status can be attributed as much to a life cut miserably short by alcoholism as it is to the work, it’s no surprise that the author’s sickly visage makes more than one appearance.

Poe’s haunted, pallid puppet head emerges from a raven’s body in Michele Howarth Rashman’s Honk If You’re A Goth, while Anton Henning paints him twice, once staring out with hapless gloom from a shadowy backdrop (pictured), and then as a goggle-eyed Cubist construction.

The exhibition is located at two sites, at White Cube Hoxton – where you’ll find Anselm Kiefer’s rather marvellous relief diptych of a falling House Of Usher – and, more atmospherically, in the crumbling basement tunnels of the old Shoreditch Town Hall – containing the Chapman brothers’ mad scientist’s contraption involving a brain, two nails and a hammer. It provides few genuine chills but is nonetheless thoroughly enjoyable in the manner of a cheap but thrilling Hammer horror movie.

Until May 10, Tue to Sat 10am to 6pm, free, 020 7930 5373

You Dig The Tunnel, I'll Hide The Soil
White Cube
Hoxton Square, N1 6PB