Replicating the Holy Land in the U.S. (a ‘Materializing the Bible’ Road Trip)

James S. Bielo analyzes a practice of religious replication: re-creations of Holy Land sites in the United States. Such replications invite visitors into an experience of sensorial and imaginative immersion, marshaling indexical techniques for materializing the Bible. Replicating the Holy Land is a strategy for actualizing the virtual problem of authenticity, a problem that animates any and every lived expression of Christianity. To explore this phenomenon, we indulge another national tradition: the great American road trip. This essay...

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The Religious Book as Object: An Interview with Dorina Miller Parmenter

Dorina Miller Parmenter approaches the book as object, inspired by her material explorations as a former book artist as well as a desire to understand why and how the book has come to be so important in religion, especially the Judeo-Christian tradition.  MLA citation format: Mohan, Urmila and Dorina Miller Parmenter "The Religious Book as Object: An Interview with Dorina Miller Parmenter " Web blog post. Material Religions....

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Paper Offerings: Judaic Themes in the Artwork of Donna Ruff

Artist Donna Ruff takes a well-known iconoclastic act—the destruction of the book—and invites us to consider this act for its destructive potential as well as its creative possibilities. Figure 1: Es-tu comme moi? (Are you like me?), 2008. Lithograph, altered books.  9 x 21 in. Photo courtesy of artist....

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