Imaging Pilgrimage: Art as Embodied Experience

Abstract

Part travelogue, part devotional bricolage, Imaging Pilgrimage: Art as Embodied Experience is a book as distinctive as the artwork it features. Religious art historian Kathryn Barush uses the practice of pilgrimage to bring contemporary artists into dialogue with each other, and with the spiritual explorers who engage their work. Barush’s knack for identifying uniquely resonant works is apparent in the creative case studies she features, each of which reflects on the relationship between artistic representation and the experience of pilgrimage. Richly illustrated and replete with testimonials from artists and pilgrims, Barush’s book argues for the transformative potential of an embodied spirituality and demonstrates the role that art and visual expression play in fostering it. The ambitious scope of the book is one of its strengths; each case study crosses geographical and temporal boundaries, and Barush navigates the crossings with ease. A South African artist who creates shadow boxes and tarot cards featuring Lourdes mementos and a cancer patient who reinterpreted the Camino de Santiago on an island in Puget Sound are just two of the eclectic assortment of artists and pilgrims featured. Barush is also broadly inclusive in terms of artistic genre. Chapter 3 focuses on the use of chant and song by members of the British Pilgrimage Trust as they connect their twenty-first century travels with those of past pilgrims. Chapter 4 features the work of artist Gisela Insuaste and the installations, sculpture,