No comments about Places for Worship: A Guide to Building and Renovating (American Essays in Liturgy).

4 comments about Ibeji: The Cult of Yoruba Twins (Hic Sunt Leones series).

1. This is a great, albeit slightly overpriced, coffee-table book.
   
   The pictures in it are great -- cover a broad variety of ibeji, from various regions in Nigeria and W. Africa.
   
   However, as one commentator said, there is really a dearth of information in this book. So much more explanation could have been provided -- be it on the Ibeji cult, Yoruba art or culture, or on the differences between the various figures from an art-historian's or cultural anthropologist's perspective.
   
   Sadly though, as is the case with many art books, text is minimal so that translation is easy, and no changes have to be made as far as image size/text length is concerned.
   
   So if you are looking for information about Ibeji, or Yoruba art, skip this book.
   
   If however, you would like to give a twin or an (West)African art lover a great gift, this book makes for an impressive coffee table expense.



2. For those of us who have ever had any interest in Ebeji or have ever seen one, this book is astounding and awe inspiring. I never new that there were so many varieties and types of sub tribes. African Art is a unique and powerfull thing. It has become so popular among art collectors and the prices they claim are breath catching. However, until now there has never been a book that has so thoroughly addressed the Ebeji of the Yoruba Tribe. If you are interested in these remarkable and beautiful peices, you should buy this book. It covers everything about them as well as it shows you the infinite creativitly of the African people.



3. An excellent book, which is thorough in its description of the ibeji twins tradition, and also presents a vast collection of images. Importantly, looking at the Ibejis can be as informative as reading about them, which is why the images play a central role in this book. I wrote this only because of the poor review by Marcos A. M. Oliveira "Marcos Arino", which happened to be the only review, which said "too many pictures." Highly recommended; most art collectors and dealers in the field use it as a reference.



4. Too many pictures and almost nothing about Ibeji. It is a nice book but I was looking for, mainly, informations about Ibeji cult in Yoruba religion and culture.

No comments about Carnal Knowing: Female Nakedness and Religious Meaning in the Christian West.

No comments about Painting the Text: The Artist as Biblical Interpreter (Bible in the Modern World).

2 comments about Biblical Visions: Women of Mystery, Men of Prophecy.

1. What a unique approach to the stories of the Bible!
   One can feel the quality of the leaves, the sharpness of the
   of the end of Autumn, the end of Paradise.
   The human condition is exemplified in all the paintings; one can relate these situations to our own lives.



2. Many readers may be surprised and thrilled to see this wondrous collection of paintings which illustrate stories from the old testament in relation to contemporary events. The artist's accompanying explanatory texts are fascinating to me.

   A book to be cherished for its thoughtful insights into the origins and history of religious beliefs.

No comments about Re-Enchantment (The Art Seminar).

1 comments about Like a House on Fire: Renewal of the Arts in a Postmodern Culture.

1. Anyone who's heard Steve Scott's brilliant new wave record/ CD, Love in the Western World, will notice that I named this review after a song on that album. Steve also often names his pieces after his songs or vice versa, which is the first thing that makes this book great; the interconnectedness of all things Steve Scott, for whom life and art and faith are not disconnected pursuits. This book, like his music, like his poetry yells that they don't have to be. If that isn't good news for the artist, I don't know what is.
   
   This book sort of picks up where Crying for a Vision (Stride Books, England) left off, but really both books are a jumble of essays loosely organized around a common theme, and not very "booky" at all. Having said that, House will still be over many reader's heads, and they'll naturally be tempted to put it down. I don't advise that: instead jump around. Skip the way deep histories in the first two chapters and dive in later. "A Jar of Dead Flies" ran in some version in now defunct True Tunes magazine. Part of "Am I Really Here or Is it Just Art?" appeared in HM magazine (just celebrating 20 years--see my magazine guide to get it from Amazon), which is to say they really are independent essays.
   
   "Am I Really Here" relates to Scott's poetry over tape loops album, The Butterfly Effect, which it would be very cool to read and then listen to respectively in an arts/ reading group. House is full of bits like that (the last two essays are projects) that could be discussed over a cup of joe (or a pint of Guiness), with each member of the group bringing examples from their own or other's art (it would really open up the part on post-modernism to thrash it out in a group).
   
   Christianity Today had an article on how traditionally Catholic and various stripes of Protestant colleges are regaining their original vision, which sort of means that how they reinvent themselves is up for grabs. I can't even imagine what might happen if someone used House as a textbook. Imagine reading a book about art by someone who actually made art. Steve Scott's now and then chapbooks, The Boundaries, are being collected into one volume by Stride, and Crying for a Vision is due to be reprinted.
   
   Steve's CDs are also (sometimes) available through RadRockers.com (search under Scott). The 77s were his back up band on Love in the Western World, which RadRockers called " a deliciously creepy, way before its time alternative rock classic, with similarities to David Bowie, Roxy Music and the Police...Lyrically deep and brilliant, with vocal inflections similar to Lou Reed." His other rock collections are Magnificent Obsession and Lost Horizon. His other albums are more experimental, like The Butterfly Effect, or Crossing the Boundaries, which was part of an installation with visual painter Gaylen Stewart, Empty Orchestra (the literal meaning of Karaoke), and More Than a Dream (odd reversions of Scott rock songs). So for an art book by an artist, check out Steve Scott.

No comments about Development of Hindu Iconography.

No comments about Muktesvara Temple in Bhubaneswar.

No comments about American Religious and Biblical Spectaculars.