The theme of this exhibition can be broadly characterised as the contemporary consequences of the original myth of the fall from grace. Most cultures have their version of a lost, golden past. In the Bible, Eden is a lush Paradise from which Adam and Eve are expelled after eating forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. Ancient Greek myths also spoke of a Golden Age of innocence which was destroyed when Pandora released misery into the world by opening a box she was told not to open.

The idea of this fall from grace has had an enduring power, and some of the most celebrated European works of art deal with the theme. Lucas Cranach the Elder’s Adam and Eve focuses on the moment when Eve offers Adam the forbidden fruit. Hieronymus Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights is a three-part altarpiece which shows Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden on the left panel, while in the centre is a world in which men and women indulge in all kinds of sinful pleasure (the 'Earthly Delights'), and on the right is a vision of the torments of hell. Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel frescoes show the suffering of Adam and Eve as they are expelled from the Garden.