The Word of Life Photo

Photographer’s Note

This is a mosaic display, The Word of Life, of 14-story library building situated at Notre Dame University campus. The Word of Life is depicting Christ the teacher surrounded by saints and scholars. The whole display is nearly 10 stories high. It is composed of over 7,000 individual pieces of stone gathered from 16 countries and several states. The head of the Jesus is nine feet high.

The artist was Millard Sheets. He was asked to create a work large enough to cover the southern face of the tower. I am quoting the artist here:

"What they asked me to do was to suggest in a great processional the idea of a never-ending line of great scholars, thinkers, and teachers - saints that represented the best that man has recorded, and which are found represented in a library. The thought was that the various periods that are suggested in the theme have unfolded in the continuous process of one generation giving to the next. I put Christ at the top with the disciples to suggest that He is the great teacher - that is really the thematic idea."

The The Word of Life has been taken from the Bible in Book 1 of John.

jpinkham, HNIK has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

jpinkham (846) 2005-10-13 20:21

You've faithfully captured an interesting piece of art, Dipak, and one that many of us would not have seen had you not shown it to us -- which fits in very well with the purpose of TE.

Thanks for a thorough, informative note. There's also a biblical reference to the Word of Life in the Book of Philippians and certainly some thematic references to Christ as the Word of Life in John's Gospel (cf. Chapters 1 and 14).

mishreyee (0) 2005-10-19 6:58