bi·ble/ˈbībəl/
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For the believers it is the word of god. For others it is a tool of oppression and for some simply a book of stories taken way too literally.
For Linda Ekstrom it is the foundation of her ‘Word’ series. Why not start at the source.
Ekstrom is no heathen, her work “is a direct extension and materialization of [her] religious practice and interest in Jewish and Christian tradition.”
Ekstrom says “My work is anchored in the book, the book as a cultural and a symbolic object, and as a container of history, narrative and memory. The Bible, as the primary book of Western culture and central to my tradition, is the book I alter and transform into sculptures.”
She goes on: “my altered Bibles insist that interpretation must remain open; they serve as visual symbols against fundamentalism, defying a singular, literal read by rearranging the order into myriad possibilities.”
“Defying a singular, literal read,” I like the sound of that.
Can you imagine if she did this to the Koran?
Sept. 2011 interview with Ekstrom
LA Times Review of Ekstrom’s 2010 show at Sherry Frumkin