The Computer Virus Catalog

Found online of course, here, this infectious guide sees the likes of Anthony Burrill, HORT, Sarah Mazzetti, and Mel Nguyen interpret viruses visually.

It has been curated by Amsterdam-based creative Bas van de Poel who has summarized the malice of each virus in written copy, which accompanies the illustrations.

The artists have been inspired by the stories behind each virus, many of which have been named according to their purpose, or for a personal reason close to the creator. 

Melissa virus is named after the author’s favorite exotic dancer, a theme which has been picked up by Saimon Chow while the Kenzero Trojan makes a user’s entire web history public and then demands a blackmail fee for its removal.

Kenzero Trojan hides inside video files of explicit Hentai anime and spreads via P2P networks. It has been captured here by Felipe Pantone.

LSD virus was a DOS virus which overwrites all files in a current directory and displays a druggy video effect. Clay Hickson has run with the psychedelic theme here.

Another DOS virus Implant would display a high res photo of a blonde bombshell wearing nothing but lingerie.

Bas van de Poel says, ‘The quality of the image is remarkable since DOS runs video in text mode. After rebooting your computer you will notice the babe erased your entire hard drive.’

Funnily enough scantily clad women are a running theme in the world of computer viruses. One time tennis ace Anna Kournikova is also the inspiration for the Anna Kournikova virus – a Windows worm which purports to be an email containing a picture of Kournikova. Upon opening it sends itself to your entire Outlook contact list.

Sarah Mazzetti has made a great job of capturing all of the key themes with this piece, which paints Kournikova as a deadly siren.

An early virus, OlympicAIDS piggybacked on the 1994 Winter Olympics causing mayhem by forming an image of the Olympic rings and making fun of the Games’ mascots, before cheerfully corrupting your hard drive and preventing you from operating anything.