Touching The Sacred Word

A workshop exploring the shape of sacred writing in different religious traditions. With an "Instant Exhibition."

At the church, the reader goes to the lectern and stands before a large Bible. It is bound in stout black leather covers. The printed words, large and elegant, are set out in two wide columns on the page. The reader begins to read a lesson from Genesis.

At the synagogue, the Torah is brought out of the ark. Its ornaments are removed, its cloth wrappings are loosed, and the scroll is unrolled on the large reading desk. The calfskin crackles lightly as the scroll is unfurled. The letters are hand-written, glossy and clear on the soft parchment. The reader chants the Torah portion of the day, a reading from Genesis.

The readings in church and synagogue are the same, but the experience of reading is completely different.

How does the shape of the book inform our understanding of what we are doing? How do Biblical texts change when their physical form is so variable? How have sacred texts developed as artifacts, and how does their physical history shape a living tradition? And is sacred writing bound into closed books, or does it spill out into the rest of life?

For the Instant Exhibition: participants bring personal documents to the workshop—a letter, a photograph, a child’s painting from the fridge—to form the exhibition. We use these objects to explore documents as physical objects and as bearers of meaning.