Big, visually stunning art book may bolster publishing''s future There are art books, coffee table books, books that are themselves artworks. "Ars Sacra: Christian Art in the Western World" is all of the above. First and foremost, it is a visual treasure chest, comprising 800 pages brimming with 1,000 brilliantly colored, sharply detailed images of Christian art and architecture drawn from the fourth to the 21st centuries. The big names are well represented -- Bernini, Caravaggio, Raphael, Michelangelo, Le Corbusier -- but, significantly, so are rarely seen works and sites. Each page holds a new wonder and presentation is paramount. "Ars Sacra" weighs nearly 23 pounds due to its thick, glossy paper, and size, 171/2 by 111/2 inches, which reflect the publisher''s commitment to the project, as do double-page spreads, fold-out pages and an exquisite reproduction of the 10th-century "Limburg Staurotheque" on its covers. The reader''s eyes soar to a Baroque ceiling fresco, which fills two pages and invites examination of each cherub, cloud and figure in a way that even the most avid church-touring, binocular-toting visitor couldn''t achieve. Another double-page image reveals the skilled craftsmanship of a reliquary artisan through larger-than-life detail, the rainbow colors of cabochon gemstones set elegantly amid gilding and cloisonne, populated with narratives of the faith.
"Ars Sacra" is arranged by art epochs and begins with "Late Antiquity -- Byzantium" and images of a fourth-century catacomb. The final image, within the section "Art Nouveau -- Expressionism -- Modern Age," is of a stained-glass window by internationally hailed contemporary artist Gerhard Richter, who used a computer to randomly generate its abstract color squares arrangement. Such chronology, grouping and resultant juxtapositions prompt cultural comparisons, including the differing ways groups perceive and relate to divinity. The pictures, then, are instructive as well as beautiful and the information more complex than that of a straightforward art historical timeline. Texts by eight scholars are illuminating but brief by necessity of space, and at times awkwardly translated from the original German. Editor Rolf Toman''s ambition for the book was high, but containing Christian-themed aesthetic achievements in one volume -- no matter how superb -- must have required some soul-searching choices. That presumption was confirmed by Lucas Ludemann, commissioning editor at publishing house h.f.
ullmann, in Potsdam, Germany, near Berlin. He explained, by telephone, that photographer Achim Bednorz traveled approximately 93,000 miles to 20 countries to shoot the thousands of photographs that were carefully winnowed to those included. The upside is that digital photography makes taking large numbers of photographs more economically feasible, and more choice allows for creative approaches to book design, Mr. Ludemann said. Pictures of the same object may be shot in "different constellations of light" that can be patched together in Photoshop to get "the perfect light for an object" and thereby the most authentic representation. One part of a cathedral, for example, may be brightly lit while another is very dark. "The eye can focus on the dark and light at the same time, but the camera can''t focus on both." "It''s a technology we didn''t have 10 years ago," Mr.
Ludemann said, and it''s "so important for making a book like this." The selection task was even more difficult due to the variety of content, including majestic cathedrals and remote monasteries, paintings and illuminated manuscripts, sculpture and liturgical objects. "We tried to make not only very well-known artworks the focus in this book, but also not so known works of art," Mr. Ludemann said. Mr. Toman''s idea for the book was large from the inception. When the publishers saw Mr. Bednorz''s photographs, they realized they could do an immense format, Mr.
Ludemann said. "If we do a topic like this, we have to show something magical so that people will say it''s magnificent and it''s the right medium for Christian art." Last year, ullmann released "1,000 Sacred Places," a smaller book that similarly explored spiritual heritage, a topic that appears to be gaining increasing interest. "You''re right," Mr. Ludemann said. "We think at the moment, and also in the long term, people are looking more toward spiritual things. They need something beyond what they are doing on earth. Life is getting faster and faster.
Book editor Toman is fond of his Christian culture and his spiritual life. He has a love for art and for history, and a feeling for spiritual things." The first edition of "Ars Sacra" was published simultaneously in German, English, French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese in a print run of 20,000, high for such a specialized publication. It is now in its second printing with added Czech and Slovak language editions. Due to its sales success, and people responding so positively, Mr. Ludemann said this will not be the last book of its kind. And it may be the sort of publication that saves the printed book. "We see it as an answer to the ebook.
We love ebooks, too. We will also do ebooks. But we also love our printed books. You can''t present content like ''Ars Sacra'' on a medium like an iPad," Mr. Ludemann said, pointing out the impossibility of controlling things like color and format. "A book is a medium that''s binding." Wednesday, December 14, 2011 By Mary Thomas, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.