Gallery: History's worst computer viruses visualised as art Gallery Gallery: History's worst computer viruses visualised as art + 5

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"Computer viruses. We hate 'em. Nevertheless, we remain fascinated by their evil plots. This fascination led to a new kind of art collection," explains Bas van de Poel in the Computer Virus Catalog "About" section.

The Computer Virus Catalog is a website displaying a range of artworks, each of which is based on or inspired by a famous computer-invading worm. It describes itself as an "illustrated guide to the worst computer viruses in history". Every virus from


Stuxnet -- supposedly designed by the US and Israeli governments to attack Iranian nuclear facilities -- to ILOVEYOU, which broke out in May 2000 and caused $10 billion in damages, is represented in the collection, and each has been illustrated by a different artist. "I approached artists whose work I really appreciate and have been following for a while. During the curation process I tried to create a nice mix of designers, illustrators and artists," van de Poel explains to Wired.co.uk.

It's true that while viruses are notoriously and universally destructive, each has its own method and therefore its own story, and the damage to computers often also has a visual element to it as well. The Computer Virus Catalog is a thought-provoking collection that gets us to visualise each worm out of context and according to its nature, rather than generalising viruses as just one kind of evil.

You can view the whole Computer Virus Catalog collection here.