Faith in Arts Chapbooks

Stemming from the Faith in Arts Institute, a partnership between BMCM+AC and UNC Asheville, BMCM+AC has published five chapbooks in collaboration with Atelier Éditions. Volumes 1-5 can be purchased individually or as a set. They include:

Vol 1: John Cage: Art, Life & Zen is an exploration of celebrated avant-garde composer John Cage and the many ways Zen Buddhism influenced his inventive practice. Featuring Cage’s writings, stories, and artworks, with new contributions from artist Laurie Anderson, poet J Mae Barizo, author Kay Larson, and poet Richard Chess.

Vol 2: Stendhal Syndrome: Art as a Transcendent Experience looks at art’s power to bewitch and offer profound and spiritual experiences, featuring artist-designed chapels across the world, and contributions from author Chloe Aridjis and art historian James Elkins. The term “Stendhal syndrome” was coined by a Florence psychiatrist to describe the strange condition she observed in patients overwhelmed by the artistic wonders of the city.

Vol 3: M. C. Richards: Pots, Poems & Pedagogy conveys M.C. Richards’ life as a creative act, full of wisdom and wonder. Introduced by her longtime friend Julia Connor, this collection brings together a glimpse of the free wheeling artist’s far-reaching practice, from pottery and painting to poetry, pedagogy, and spiritualism. With excerpts from Richards’ writing, an array of her artworks and hand-written ephemera, plus contributions from choreographer Merce Cunningham, writer Sally Chakwin, and artists Grace Villamil, and Jennie Jieun Lee.

Vol 4: The Quiet House: Stillness in Lake Eden chronicles the significance of a small stone house on a peaceful grove in Lake Eden, North Carolina. Built singlehandedly by artist Alex Reed, this structure served as a sanctuary for reflection, frequented by a number of Black Mountain College artists and poets. This collection analyzes the building’s unique history, with photographs by Robert Rauschenberg and Hazel Larsen Archer, works on paper by Ruth Asawa, text from writers Michael Beggs, John ColmanWood, and Ellen Mara De Wachter, and a meditative exercise from Yael Greenberg.

Vol 5: THE LAND: Stories of the Soil explores how the beguiling landscape of Lake Eden supplied creative inspiration to many Black Mountain College artists. In the 1930s, when a farm was founded there by a patchwork of students, farmers, and faculty, the Appalachian land also helped feed the community. These pages unearth the rich soil of the area through a diverse collection of voices, including a poetic history of place by Isabella Losskarn, David Silver’s lively story of the college’s renegade farm, a Cherokee folktale from Kathi Littlejohn, poems by Jeffrey Beam, David Weinrib, and M.C. Richards, a nature journal brimming with flora and fauna from Mari Yamashita de Moya, and artworks by Josef and Anni Albers.