De nieuwe verkeerde wereld 1806 - 1830

This is Jacob Plügger’s print, “De nieuwe verkeerde wereld,” made in the nineteenth century. The print is structured as a grid, each square showing a reversal of the natural order. Plügger presents a world turned upside down, using familiar forms – animals, people, landscapes – but arranging them in impossible scenarios. Note the horse pushing a cart, pigs slaughtering butchers, fish flying in formation. These inversions destabilize our expectations, prompting us to question the norms we take for granted. The linear arrangement imposes a logic onto the absurd, suggesting an underlying system even in chaos. By methodically dismantling the expected, Plügger exposes the artifice of social constructs. The visual structure itself becomes a commentary on order and disorder, reflecting a broader cultural unease with established hierarchies. This is a world not merely inverted, but interrogated.