During the Middle Ages, torture was considered a legitimate way to extract confessions, punish offenders, and perform executions. Some methods were considerably crueler than others — these 10 being ...

Medieval contraptions and torture devices are on view at the new LA museum. (all photos courtesy the Medieval Torture Museum) “The Medieval Torture Museum is meant to feed off the emotions of people ...

Some may be disturbed, others may be grossed out and a few might find it fascinating, but most visitors to this new museum in Los Angles will have a hard time forgetting all of the unbelievably cruel ...

French philosopher Georges Bataille wrote in his 1949 essay The Cruel Practice Of Art that art "puts us on the path of complete destruction and suspends us there for a time, [offering] us ravishment ...