Connecting New England's historical spiritualist and utopian traditions—from Brook Farm to Harvard's LSD research—to work by contemporary artists with regional ties. New England has a rich history of spiritual, mystical, and utopian strivers. Their visionary schemes range from nineteenth-century Transcendentalist experiments in communal living at Brook Farm and Fruitlands to the Harvard Project's LSD research, led by Timothy Leary, in the mid-twentieth century. The search for alternative ways of life often overlapped with the search for the Divine or expanded modes of consciousness and creativity. Visionary New England, which accompanies an exhibition at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, connects these traditions to the work of ten contemporary artists with New England ties. Generously illustrated, with ninety color images, the book interweaves analysis and imagery of New England's visionary traditions with reproductions of paintings, photographs, video, and installations by the artists. Essays examine New England's spiritualist and utopian practices; Transcendentalist writers' conception of Nature as “Other”; and the social significance of spiritualism. Texts by exhibiting artists Anna Craycroft and Candice Lin address the pedagogy of Amos Bronson Alcott, cofounder of Fruitlands, and the effects of opium trade in New England. Visionary New England bridges past and present, offering a new lens through which to understand contemporary art. Essays by Sarah J. Montross, Richard Hardack, Lisa Crossman, Anna Craycroft Artists Gayleen Aiken, Caleb Charland, Anna Craycroft, Angela Dufresne, Sam Durant, Josephine Halvorson, Paul Laffoley, Candice Lin, Michael Madore, Kim Weston

This study of radical prophecy in 17th-century England explores the significance of gender for religious visionaries between 1650 and 1700. Phyllis Mack focuses on the Society of Friends, or Quakers, the largest radical sectarian group active during the English Civil War and Interregnum. The meeting records, correspondence, almanacs, autobiographical and religious writings left by the early Quakers enable Mack to present a textured portrait of their evolving spirituality. Parallel sources on men and women provide a unique opportunity to pose theoretical questions about the meaning of gender, such as whether a "women's spirituality" can be identified, or whether religious women are more or less emotional than men.

In his afterword, Igor Webb writes, "The lament, uttered when love and death are most closely bound, is something like an essential accessory to mortality. . . . 'Living with a Visionary' is the poet's account of his, and (and his wife) Diana's, descent into hell (from effects of Parkinson's disease). . . . But it's in 'Some of Her Things,' a fable in the form of a long prose poem, . . . that Matthias most powerfully, and poignantly, deploys his language. . . . it is a courtly threnody for lost time." Literary Nonfiction

Visionary Worlds examines the role and significance of imagination and the myth-making processes that engage human beings in constructing a viable, living world of meaningful relations, beliefs, and social interactions. In this process of "world-building," we each draw on a wide variety of ideologies--religious, philosophical, aesthetic or scientific--which often conflict and clash with one another in the struggle to evolve a coherent and meaningful worldview. This unpredictable and fallible process often requires considerable readjustment or revisions as the complexities of an increasingly pluralistic society impinge upon us with greater divergence and multiplicity. This work examines the ways in which we all make and unmake our reality as part of the challenge of seeking greater spiritual maturity and relatedness to others.

This book sheds light on the role of religion in the American Revolution and surveys an important facet of the intellectual history of the early Republic.

Explains the four pillars of well-being--meaning and purpose, positive emotions, relationships, and accomplishment--placing emphasis on meaning and purpose as the most important for achieving a life of fulfillment.

The need to personalize our surroundings is a defining human characteristic. For some this need becomes a compulsion to transform their personal surroundings into works of art. The John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, has undertaken the mission to preserve these environments, which are presented for the first time in Sublime Spaces and Visionary Worlds. This colorful and inspiring book features the work of twenty-two vernacular artists whose locales, personal histories, and reasons for art-making vary widely but who all share a powerful connection to the home as art. Featured projects range from art environments that remain intact, such as Simon Rodia's Watts Towers in California, tosites lost over the years such as Emery Blagdon's six hundred elaborate "Healing Machines," made of copper, aluminum, tinfoil, magnets, ribbons, farm-machinery parts, painted light bulbs, beads, coffee-can lids, and more. Sublime Spaces and Visionary Worlds is the first book to explore these spectacularly offbeat spaces in detail.From "Original Rhinestone Cowboy" Loy Bowlin's wall-to-wall glitter-and-foil living room to the concrete bestiary of "witch of Fox Point" Mary Nohl, each artist and project is described in detail through a wealth of visuals and text. Sublime Spaces and Visionary Worlds reminds us that our decorative choices tell the world not just what we like but who we are.