BARBARA BENISH

"This edition of The Book of Revelation presents Los Angeles/Prague artist Barbara Benish's graphic interpretations of the final chapter of the New Testament. Her illustrations dramatize the horror and beauty of St. John's apocalyptic vision. By closely integrating her images and the biblical literature in a large format, and using the highest standards of craft in its production, every effort has been made to recreate a sense of the monumental that emanates from the texts of incunabula. Just as Benish's linoleum cuts gain strength from reference to previous interpretations of this text by Durer, Cranach, and Blake, I pay homage to the fierce beauty and sense of spirituality created by the perfection of craft fond in the printed book's rich heritage. Collaboratively, we seek to provide a link between the past and present which will nourish those who continue to believe in the transformative power of art and literature."  Robin Price Publisher and Printer 1993  www.robinpricepublisher.com

"...written while St. John was in exile, the Book of Revelation dates from the end of the first century, a time of severe religious persecution. For Benish, St. John's vision of the Apocalypse bridges the historic and very current struggles for spiritual and secular guidance. She writes, 'I began this series in the summer of 1992, in a little studio in the Braník district of Prague.  Riots had erupted in Los Angeles. A close friend was dying of AIDS. The war broke out in Sarajevo and anyone remembering a fraction of European history heard the shots. My work at the time commemorated the 500 years of violent fruition between European and American cultures ( "Encuentro", shown in Los Angeles and Prague, spring 1992). It seemed appropriate to put a knife to linoleum in the hot summer sun of an abandoned garden in Central Europe where the Golem still roams and McDonalds just arrived.'"

In the words of Tomas McEvilly, "what is horrifying is also sublime". I continued working with the theme of "Revelations", as I saw a beauty and cognizant quality of the text on a deeper level. The small linoleum prints weren't enough. So I manipulated them into collages and paint, creating new large scale paintings, called "Lines of Pleasure". The title to this series of 10-12 paintings is translated from the Czech "čáry pro přotešiní. The czech expression čary marí, now used in english by children pretending to make secret incantations, comes from ancient times when female mystics would draw lines in the dirt to prophesy the future. These reading of signs, based in ancient knowledge, is not far from John of

Patmos's extensive use of allusion, Greek and Egyptian mythology and religion, numerology, and Hebrew vision literature.

Therefore, each painting attends to either a vision or a key phrase in Revelations. For instance "Lambheart" revers to the end of the text, the "New Jerusalem", the Philadelphia (one of the 7 cities in John's text). The four animals mentioned by John, which in turn represent the four elements, directions, four beasts, and four paths. It represents the pilgrim who may feel as outcast from his/her native culture (and thus "leaves the city"), but ushers in a new way of life. The Lamb of course is the eternal sacrifice, represented by Jesus Christ in this time. Each painting is a collage of many small copies of the graphic works, melded and intertwined together on the canvas, creating an abstracted (less 'realistic') vision of our original Book of Revelations, again echoing the process of the text itself.

In this way, the words of John "the Divine", come full circle into our contemporary post-modern world: in painted simulacra of an ancient vision. As he said "Devour my words and then throw them away". Do not take the Word too literally, which corresponds to today's deconstructivist theories on the text. It is not necessarily the "What" but the "How", that matters. It is my hope these paintings, graphics, and installations on the Revelation theme will open the viewer to a less rational spiritual awareness of the Divine, than we have been given for 2000 years. They offer a perhaps more feminine, underground sensibility and interpretation to a traditionally male-dominated discourse. Because, after all,

"...and every thousand years the devil must be loosened a little"