Eric Gill was a respected British artist

Eric Gill was a respected British artist and typographer — Gill Sans is his most famous typeface — but according to his diaries, he also regularly engaged in sexual relations with his sisters, his daughters, and the family dog.

For some of Gill’s fans, even looking at his work became impossible. Most problematically, he was a Catholic convert who created some of the most popular devotional art of his era, such as the Stations of the Cross in Westminster Cathedral, where worshippers pray at each panel depicting the suffering of Jesus.

These details of Gill’s private life were revealed in a 1989 book by Fiona MacCarthy…here’s a NY Times review of the book soon after it was published.

• art
• ericgill
• gillsans
• incest
• sex
• typography