Born to Be Conned

Alexis Beauclair’s simple but striking illustration of a person entering a maze captures the essence of The Times Opinion article, “Born to Be Conned,” published December 5, 2015. The image is part of our collection of editorial illustrations being offered for the first time ever to the public as unframed or framed fine-art prints.

In the article, author Maria Konnikova writes about people being swept up in confidence games by grifters. “We embrace something we think is as true as it gets. We don’t set out to be conned. We set out to become, in some way, better than we were before. That is the true power of belief. It gives us hope. If we are skeptical, miserly with our trust, unwilling to accept the possibilities of the world, we despair. To live a good life we must, almost by definition, be open to belief. And that is why the confidence game is both the oldest there is and the last one that will still be standing when all other professions have faded away.”

Alexis Beauclair is a French drawing artist. His work includes drawings, comics and commissioned illustrations for such publications as The New York Times, New Yorker and Bloomberg Businessweek. He self-publishes his drawing zines and mini comics in his print studio, Riso Papier Machine, co-founded with Bettina Henni in 2012. He has also produced comics, children’s books and illustrated books with publishers. His “Vanishing Perspective” collection of comics was published in America by 2dcloud in 2018. His work on comics is focused on minimalism, questioning reading and the comics’ medium, while trying to refine and reveal the pure mechanics of the comic form. He is also co-editor of the international comics anthology “Lagon,” founded in 2014.