Und wenn sie nicht gestorben sind is the German equivalent of the English fairy-tale ending "and they lived happily ever after." Literally,"and if they are not already dead [they are still alive]."

This phrase, recited to German-speaking children at the end of a bedtime story, fascinates me with its unabashed gruesomeness. It is hard to imagine a child having to hear this right before he goes to sleep.

The repeating pattern alternates skeleton fingers and ovens, and is printed in a dried-blood red. The size of the bones on the wallpaper corresponds to my own finger measurements.