Original work by Nicholas Umpleby.

This image depicts sickness in two different forms.  The first panel labeled THEN, features two people infected with the Black Death and covered in sores.  The second panel labeled NOW, represents the contemporary sickness people suffer from which is the pathological infatuation with material goods.  Through technology, Modern man has discovered a way to overcome the forces of nature and thrive in a world that can often be unforgiving.  However humans now find themselves in the paradoxical predicament in which the very things that have enabled them to survive and advance are the same things that threaten their future existence. We have created a culture that is pathological at its core and is supported by a flawed worldview that enables it.  The man and woman in this image have been infected by this psychosomatic disorder of sorts and are purging themselves of those things that are destroying them both mentally and physically. Both the people living in Italy during the time of the plague and people alive today are dealing with events of mass destruction. The only thing that has changed is the form of the destructive force.  In Italy it was the infectious disease of influenza.  Nowadays it is our pathological culture and its byproducts.