I love my mousepad. It was purchased across the ocean, during a visit to The British Museum back when I was studying abroad in England, early 2000. At the time of my visit, the museum sported an exhibition titled: The Apocalypse and the Shape of Things to Come. The exhibition featured art having apocalyptic themes. One of the works was a woodcut: Albrecht Dürer's The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. (See also Wikipedia entry on Albrecht Dürer and The British Museum's entry for Albrecht Dürer.)
Although I was able to find some discussion of the print, I was unable to find a sufficiently detailed discussion as I recall reading on the cardboard that came with my mousepad. For example, a detail not included in the above-linked discussion is that in the woodcut, Hell (the gaping maw/dragon towards the bottom-left) can be seen devouring everyone, kings next to peasants, illustrating how everyone is seen in the same light come the apocalypse.
Then again, maybe I should just buy this book. (Oh, here's an essay on Dürer's series of woodcuts.)
In any case, it was an interesting exhibition and I am rather glad I purchased the mousepad. Right now, this is the only item of personal expression in my office. Some day I hope to expand to an artistic print with a comic book theme (maybe Alex Ross' classic X-Men) though I doubt I'll ever be able to have an action figure in my office (as nice as that would be, it's a little too déclassé for an attorney's office).
