Joe Coleman: The Man of Sorrows

by Joe Coleman

Hardcover (never had a jacket) printed in metallic gold ink with hand-tipped-in die-cut illustrations. Limited edition of 2,000 made. These are direct from the publisher.

Genres: Art

32 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1998

Reviews

[Tentatively, Convenience · Rating 4 out of 5]

For those of you already familiar w/ Coleman's work, I won't have much new to say. I got this & the other Coleman bk because I made a short movie about Joe & Whitney Ward's wedding at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore & Whitney & Joe liked the movie so Joe gave me his bks. That, in & of itself, is a sign of 2 qualities that I value highly: generosity & appreciation. But w/ the personal element aside, Coleman's work is utterly praiseworthy for its attn to detail & its willingness to look deeply into subjects too disturbing for many folks. Coleman once sd something like "Since I can't dig my way out of the hole I'm in, I'll dig my way all the way through it" & that sums it up neatly. This bk is his work about Christ. It's beautifully done by Gates of Heck publisher. The pages are printed in gold ink on black paper - all in Coleman's handwriting w/ borders inked in. The color illustrations are diecut & glued onto the pages - rather than printed on them directly. Coleman puts forth the theory that Mary was raped by a Roman solider & that Christ was the result. This certainly fits into my worldview better than the notion of a 'God'! The main reason I give this bk a 4 star rating instead of a 5 is that I'm just so damned sick of Christ! Other than that, this bk is of vital importance to all observers of the human condition.