Jacque Mercier's Art That Heals: The Image As Medicine in Ethiopia 1997 Prestel

Description: Art That Heals: The Image As Medicine in Ethiopia by Jacques Mercier 1997 Prestel / Museum for African Art (New York), 9 3/8 x 12 1/8 inches tall burgundy cloth hardcover in publisher's unclipped dust jacket, yellow lettering to front cover and spine, copiously illustrated with black-and-white and color photographs and reproductions of artwork, 126 pp. A couple of tiny white stains to the rear cover. Prior owner name to top margin of blank front free-endpaper. Otherwise, a very good to near fine copy - clean, bright and unmarked - in an only very slightly edgeworn dust jacket which is nicely preserved and displayed in a clear archival Brodart sleeve. In part one, Art That Heals opens a methodological discussion of the idea of healing art, fast becoming meaningful today to the Western public. The history and ideas of healing images in the Mediterranean world (Greek, Jewish, Christian, Muslim) is traced. This ancient link between art and therapy, reestablished early in the twentieth century by Prinzhorn and Morgenthaler, is presented through their pioneer work with the art of the mentally ill. Finally, there is a discussion on the museum display of healing objects that is intended to reveal to the museum visitor the connection between the object and the body. An installation that provides an experience analogous to the actual healing process is presented as a model. Part two relates the most fundamental Ethiopian healing images to the various underlying ideas about their effectiveness. Some of those included are images having sacrificial status, images of fascinating spirits who dwell in our body, images representing the sum of the visions of the sick, and images which are both real and fake medicine. Images, chosen from the centuries-old parchment scrolls, are made of intricate abstract patterning and fascinating, semi-figurative images, some are derived from Greek Gorgon, and Christian iconography. A variety of other compelling media such as books of talismans, icons, church frescoes, and crosses dating from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries are also featured in connection with recurring images. In conclusion Art That Heals examines the connection between Ethiopian scroll art and other African art, inviting the reader to consider more general rather than mere inter-ethnic relationships. If African healing art is of so much interest today it is due to its discovery or rediscovery in a world where alternative medicines are being sought and our relationship to art is being questioned. Contents: Healing art : an introduction / Jacques MercierHistory : therapeutic and salvational images in the West / Jacques MercierPlastic meaning and psychosis : anthropological meaning and therapeutic effects of the works of the mentally ill / Henri MaldineyEthiopian identitiesWise men and their worksSpirituality and representationOriginal aspects of the effectiveness of the scroll imagesThe object and the body : analogic installations / Jacques Mercier

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End Time: 2025-02-07T09:13:11.000Z

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