Kirjahaku

“My husband Jan finished me on 17 June 1439. . . . My age was 33 years.” So speaks Margaret van Eyck from the frame of her portrait. This painted inscription honors its maker Jan van Eyck, even as it blurs the distinction between living subject and painted double. Frame Work, an in-depth study of paintings, sculpture, and manuscript illumination in their varied social settings, argues that frames and framing devices are central to how Renaissance images operate. In a period of rapid cultural change, framing began to secure the very notion of an independent “artwork,” and reframings could regulate the meaning attached to works of art—a process that continues in the present day. Highlighting innovations in framing introduced by figures such as Donatello, Giovanni Bellini, and Jean Fouquet, this original book shows how the inventive character of Renaissance frames responds to broader sociopolitical and religious change. The frame emerges as a site of beauty, display, and persuasion, and as a mechanism of control.

While travelling in Laos on a winding mountain road, the bus that award-winning journalist Alison Wright was riding is collided with a logging truck. As she waited fourteen hours for proper medical care - in excruciating pain, certain she was moments from death - Alison drew upon years of meditation practice and concentrated on every breath as if it would be her last. Despite countless surgeries and a gruelling recovery, Alison set herself the goal of achieving a new dream: to one day climb Mount Kilimanjaro - and she reached the summit on her fortieth birthday. Gasping for air once again, she stood at the highest point in Africa, determined to never again take a single breath for granted. Perfect readers who love spiritual authors travelling abroad, such as Greg Mortenson ("Three Cups of Tea") and Elizabeth Gilbert ("Eat, Pray, Love"), this memoir is an amazingly inspirational tale of how a life-changing accident transformed one woman's faith.

A page-turner in the most exquisite sense, this book of over 160 portraits expresses the emotive beauty and grace of the human face. Documentary photographer Alison Wright traveled to every continent to capture the diversity of the human tribe, from toddlers to those who've lived a lifetime, and from South America to Africa, Asia, and points in between. Some of the people photographed are privileged, some live ordinary lives, and others live close to the land and in communities that may not last another generation. Collectively, these surprising studies of the human face remind us of our common bond and the inherent dignity in being ourselves.

Powerful images and stories of women who are rising above their circumstances in developing countries, by award-winning photographer Alison Wright, who has spent a career documenting the human condition around the world. From tea fields to technology, women are the resilient, hardworking backbone of their communities. Award-winning photographer Alison Wright's 128 dynamic color plates portray women in more than 25 developing countries, whose perseverance is often overlooked. Women from Nicaragua to Nepal share empowering experiences of rising above their circumstances, be it poverty or oppressive cultural conventions. The photos and the women's quotes express what work means to them—creating financial independence, purpose, and community, as well as deep-rooted cultural traditions. Grit and Grace also celebrates the grassroots organizations committed to finding creative solutions to the challenges these individuals face. Give a woman a seed of opportunity, and she will grow a forest.