Livres en Liberte

This print is inspired by an artist book Numinous Cranes the artist created in 2014 which is now part of the University of North Texas Willis Library's Rare Books Collection.

Numinous Cranes is an attempt to understand different paths to spirituality. I was raised in France but have now spent half of my life in California. Here many cultures and traditions live together creating fascinating exchanges. West and East are in constant dialogue. I decided to explore it within the realms of the spiritual. With this project I also tried to understand the need for prayer and meditation. I imagined that the person who read the small volumes of the Biblia Sacra or Sadako who folded cranes for nine months and many others across the ages and across the world through their prayers and their rituals, were primarily trying to make sense of their lives. It is a complex line between spiritual and secular, heavenly and earthly, sacred and profane; a mysterious one too. By deconstructing what some may see as a sacred book and transforming it into what some view as a healing project, I created my own meditative journey. By incorporating words and beeswax in the folded structures and squaring the nests, I allowed myself another escape from orthodoxy .

Servane Briand

Location

Art Center Meeting Room