Spiritual Spectacles

<p>Promey's book is a penetrating analysis of Shaker art. . . . The book is a gem a true advance in Shaker studies art history religious history and cultural history. Highly recommended. --Choice<br /><br /> . . . a very intelligent and articulate . . . treatment of a stunning set of message-images. --Art Bulletin<br /><br />This book is a pleasure to look at and to read. --Religious Studies Review<br /><br />[A] fascinating investigation into another world. The Shaker spirit drawings . . . offer clues into a remarkable moment of American life as well as an opportunity to rethink just how the visual arts religious revitalizations and social memory relate to one another. . . . [A] model study: clear absorbing and significant. --Neil Harris author of The Artist in American Society<br /><br />Sally Promey's inquiry . . . critically engages current issues in the study of visual culture: what do images do; how do they work; what needs do they fulfill; just what is their 'power'? Her compelling case study joins fundamental concerns of art historians with those of students of religion and history . . . By means of an exacting examination of Shaker drawings as the site of both expectation and encounter Promey successfully situates these <i>Spiritual Spectacles</i> at the meeting point of the 'inner' and the 'outer' eye. --Linda Seidel author of Jan van Eyck's Arnolfini Portrait: Stories of an Icon<br /><br />Promey has brought to her work an excellent sensitivity to the religious issues involved keen sight and powers of observation and a very creative interpretive framework. --Stephen J. Stein author of The Shaker Experience in America</p>