J: That principle you're talking about is called "Godwin's Law." I don't know that it applies literally here, for two reasons. One is that Godwin's Law, strictly speaking, really only applies to discussions on the Internet. The other is that conversations that are actually about World War II or the Third Reich are exempt from Godwin's Law: it's okay to bring up Hitler if you're actually discussing Hitler, just not as an analogy for other things.

Technicalities about Godwin's Law aside, though, your broader point stands: it is hard as hell to say anything new or interesting about Hitler. An artist seeking to do this ought to ask, "What hasn't been said about this subject before?" Salvador Dali's "Hitler Masturbating" is a masterpiece of satire, or so says my inner Beavis, anyhow. Gottfried Helnwein's painting Epiphany I is another excellent example, reminding us that not only was Hitler once a baby, but also that we can recognize him without his mustache.

So, an artist who wants to take four copies of Mein Kampf and cut them into a four-letter word has got some stiff competition, and a lot of history, to deal with if they want to add anything new to the discussion. When I was in my late teens and taking a beginning Graphic Design class at a community college in San Diego, I did an assignment where we had to combine an image with text, and I used an image of Hitler, and was torn between two phrases: "Three Inches," or "Choir Boy." (Hitler was a choir boy in his youth; popular rumor has it that he had a very small penis.) I ended up going with Choir Boy. I'm not bringing this up as a particularly awesome thing I did; it was just an assignment for a class I took when I was fresh out of high school. But I mention it up because, silly as it was, it was a legitimate effort to bring something new to the discussion. Four letter words that would be unexpected as cut out of Mein Kampf? Hope. Fear. Dare. Love. Life. Shit. Bold. Any of those would be less redundant than "Hate," which is virtually synonymous with Adolf Hiter's legacy. How about "LUST"? I'd go with that. Hiter's hatred was really only incidental, I think; it was his lust for power that predominated...