THE BOOKS OF COINCIDENCE.
Artist and Author: Anne Graaff
The artist book, The Books of Co-incidence, is a long ballad in text and image. The sequential poetic text weaves through the images.
The art piece is a palimpsest, created upon the pages of an ancient turn of the century book about art and religion. Now, utilizing art again, the book takes a contemporary look at the nature and content of the religions upon which our civilization is built. In the front piece to the book I describe it:
“A rebellious romp through religions, my Ladies of the Lamp, the many Madonnas”
I use the image of the Madonna, in many guises, as the recurring and linking theme in the work. She is the guide through the labyrinthine pathways of the subject matter, the lady who holds the guiding lamp through the dark forests of tangled ideas and religious ideologies.
This is a mystical work, an attempt to open the door to the inner sanctum, the secret heart of the religious impulse.
Text and image build together the final edifice.
The Books of Coincidence also exists as a video with the poetry recited, and a musical score by Christopher Culpo.
