The End is at Hand: An Illustrated History of the Apocalypse

The End is at Hand: An Illustrated History of the Apocalypse is a new book by Dubai-based American printmaker Darrel Perkins, featuring short stories and linocut illustrations about the end of the world. 

People have always concerned themselves with the end of the world. Through a collection of short essays, the book explores how it has all ended before, when we mistakenly thought it would end again, and the ways it could end in the future. Told chronologically, the tales begin with prehistoric extinctions and extend into the distant future when the universe may (or may not) collapse. Nothing lasts forever, including the worlds we inhabit – human society, our planet, and the entire universe. 

The End is at Hand was a Covid project, starting as an exhibition of linocut prints about the end of the world, but the stories expanded into a fully researched non-fiction book. Sixty linocut illustrations were drawn, carved, and printed by hand to pair with the stories. The tales reflect our ongoing cataclysmic fears, including but not limited to asteroids, volcanos, flood, plague, zombies, artificial intelligence, global warming, and of course, each other.