"More than anything, there are more images in evil. Evil is based far more on the visual, whereas good has no good images at all"

Lars von Trier’s statement suggests that evil is more readily translated into images, while good resists visual representation. He draws a distinction between how evil and good manifest in art and imagination, claiming that evil produces an abundance of striking, compelling images, while good leaves little in terms of visual impact.

Evil often enters our consciousness through sharp, defined visuals: violence, suffering, destruction, and dramatic gestures. Throughout art history and cinema, the imagery of evil is vivid and immediately recognizable. The villains, monsters, and oppressive symbols linger far longer in memory than their virtuous counterparts. Consider paintings of hell, film noir, or horror films, artistic traditions that thrive on the allure and drama of the sinister. Evil’s visual dimension is visceral, tangible, and easily externalized. It provides the artist with material that is concrete, immediate, and emotionally charged.

In contrast, visualizing good proves elusive. Acts of kindness, tenderness, or moral courage are not as instantly dramatic or symbolically rich. Goodness tends to be quiet, understated, or invisible, lacking the ostentatious markers that make evil so visually potent. Where evil can be embodied in scars, darkness, and blood, good comes as an absence, of harm, of pain, of conflict, or in subtle expressions difficult to pin down visually. The difficulty artists face in representing the face of the truly good, serene, ordinary, perhaps indistinct, underscores the challenge of making goodness compelling in visual narratives.

Von Trier’s observation taps into a longstanding artistic dilemma: darkness fascinates because it allows for more inventive, concrete imagery. The visual world is biased toward what disturbs or provokes rather than what soothes or redeems. In this way, evil monopolizes the visual register, while good retreats to the abstract or the invisible, posing a challenge for those who would try to render it.