Janet Burchill’s painting Repeat and sin no more recreates the 1985–86 screenprint Repent and sin no more! by Andy Warhol. Warhol’s image was itself borrowed from a Christian advertisement. As an openly gay artist who was also a devout Catholic, Warhol’s use of the Evangelical slogan complicates its original religious context, reproduced as it was against the social background of the Church’s moralising presence during the AIDS crisis in the 1980s.

Burchill mimics Warhol’s font but swaps the word ‘repent’ for ‘repeat’. This subversive change invites the continuation of ‘wrong’ behaviour. She creates this additional meaning by changing a single letter, demonstrating how even slight alterations to existing images can provide new avenues for interpretation.