Contemplation Through Illumination

Welcome back, St. Norbert community and beyond, to another exciting year in the Bush Art Center Galleries.

To kickoff the new school year, the Baer Gallery is privileged to be hosting the Contemplation Through Illumination exhibit as part of St. Norbert College’s “A Year With The Saint John’s Bible.”

The centerpiece of Contemplation Through Illumination is the Gospel and Acts volume of one of the very limited Heritage Editions of the Saint John’s Bible, along with some various illuminations from other volumes of the same edition. Being that the original Saint John’s Bible, the first illumination of it’s size to be commissioned by a Benedictine monastery in more than 500 years, is safely housed at Saint John’s University, the Heritage Edition is the closest you can come to experiencing the beauty of the Saint John’s Bible at a traveling exhibit.

The Heritage Edition is “the only full-size, limited, and signed and numbered fine-art edition that will ever be produced,”¹ and is able to exude the brilliance of the original work as it was carefully created with Donald Jackson, the creator of the original document, at the helm as creative director.

Accompanying the Heritage Edition is a video exploring the creation of the Saint John’s Bible, as well as a collection of manuscript pages from the Saint Norbert College Art Collection that allow visitors to compare pages dating from the 13th to 17th centuries to the contemporary Saint John’s Bible.

The exhibit will run from August 27 until September 28 and will host a reception on September 11 from 4:30-6:30 p.m.

Concurrent Exhibitions

Alongside of Contemplation Through Illumination, the Bush Art Center is currently hosting two other exhibitions. See below for details:

April Beiswenger: The Making/Giving Project, Godschalx Gallery*

Selections from the SNC Art Collection, Permanent Collection Gallery

*Check back on the blog soon for an in depth look at this exhibition, including an interview with the artist herself.

Upcoming Events

Gallery reception, September 11, 4:30-6:30 p.m.

Lecture “From Inspiration to Illumination: An Introduction to The Saint John’s Bible,” September 11, 7 p.m. in Fort Howard Theatre (Lecturer Tim Ternes: Director of The Saint John’s Bible)

SNC Day, September 22, 10 a.m-4 p.m.

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Footnotes

¹From the informational literature available at the gallery, provided at the courtesy of Saint John’s University and St. Norbert College.