Hashtag Alley

2026

Copperplate print on etching paper.

Edition of 50.

This piece is based on the famous 1751 print Gin
Lane by William Hogarth. Hogarth created Gin Lane
in support of what would become the Gin Act; a
government measure to curb the use of distilled spirits,
which were seen as a major cause of social ill.
Fox was inspired to create a take on Hogarth’s classic
composition by fried and writer Louis Elton. In early
2026 Elton wrote an article for UnHerd titled ‘It’s
time for neo-Temperance’, which drew comparisons
between the historic anti-alcohol temperance
movement, and the current movement to curb the
use of social media; seen as a contemporary source
of societal ill. While researching the article, Elton
discovered that during the temperance movement,
many artists and printmakers were commissioned
to create work illustrating the ideas of the crusade.
Elton writes in his article “To succeed today, the neo-
Temperance movement must find and celebrate its very
own Hogarths, Cruikshanks, and Brontës and propagate
their works in the physical world. Who will paint the Beer
Street and Gin Lane of the smartphone era?”